On Friday, July 11, 2003, at 06:11 PM, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-07-11 at 14:43, rbstrickland@cox.net wrote:
>>> Thanks. I wonder how many of these vulnerabilities would be elim-
>>> inated if most programmers stopped using C, and went to pointerless
>>> languages (everything from Python, BASIC, Java and Lisp/workalikes,
>>> all the way to COBOL, Ada and FORTRAN) for most work.
>>
>> I understand the point you're making, but COBOL does have pointers,
>
> Yes, COBOL-99 does, but no one really uses it. COBOL-85 is *the*
> 3GL business language.
Blah. COBOL is a ledger book with an attitude.
>> and Java's got a functional equivalent (but it's been a really
>
> Really? Are you sure? Since it runs in a VM, how can it?
The VM still has an addressing space. On the other hand, Java uses
references, not pointers, which is technically quite different. And in
the context of "let's switch to pointer-less languages to dodge bugs,"
the language incorporates runtime checks against dereferences, which
covers the most frequent pointer style errors.
>> long time since I last used either Ada or Java.)
>>
>> Of course the world would be a much better place if everyone coded in
>> Lisp or Ada.
>
> Lots of Insipid Stupid Parentheses. At least it doesn't have
> pointers.
I'm convinced that anyone who can't grasp the delightful serenity of a
functional language will curse parentheses until eternity. On the
other hand, the defenders of parens tend to tremble before the brutish
glory of imperative languages.
>> And BAH, who uses FORTRAN anymore???
>
> People who do matrix manipulation, or are over 50.
Scientists still use it. And then there's always junior programmers
who have to integrate legacy code into government apps for the NRL.
> --
> +-----------------------------------------------------------+
> | Ron Johnson, Jr. Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net |
> | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
> | |
> | "Adventure is a sign of incompetence" |
> | Stephanson, great polar explorer |
> +-----------------------------------------------------------+
>
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Received on 07/14/03
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