[LUAU] PC Week Labs' tests show what path Linux must take

[Michael Sawyer]

On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Jimen Ching wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Michael Sawyer wrote:
> >Unfortunately, C makes it frightenly easy to not test for errors and 
> >allow them to just propegate through a system until something 
> >catastrophic happens.
> 
> I don't want to start a language war; but, which language 'makes it
> frightenly _hard_ to not test for errors'?  I would like to suggest such a
> language to my employer.

And therein lies the problem...  There isn't one.  My point wasn't to say
that C isn't the language we should be using, but that the "language of
choice" now often allows some VERY subtle errors to creep in.  C++ is 
actually as bit better in some regards, with the concept of thrown 
exceptions, but considering all of the other baggage you get with C++, I 
suspect it is unlikely it will (or should) replace C as the main system 
programming language.

> Is that one of the new programming language requirements now, making it
> hard to not test for errors?  I'll tell you one thing, I'd prefer it over
> readability features.

I'm certainly not one to dictate language requirements...  However, 
consider one thing: How many times have we seen the latest sendmail 
exploit based on overrunning a string buffer somewhere in the code?  How 
many times do you see a quick and dirty program someone writes not test 
return values of fopen(), malloc(), or some other system or library 
call for NULL?

I think it is a drawback of C that there is no mechanism other than just 
returning a NULL pointer and assuming the program tests for it to handle 
errors, but I still think it's the best we've got.  One can cite 
drawbacks of a tool without completely throwing out that tool.  :>

						Mike
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