XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: Peter@Iron-Spring.com   
      
   On 1/3/26 13:38, rbowman wrote:   
   > On Sat, 03 Jan 2026 06:09:32 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:   
   >   
   >> And whether the variable is followed by some padding.  If that char[4]   
   >> variable is followed by, say, 4 bytes of padding, you can write up to 8   
   >> bytes to it and not feel a thing.  Then comes the day when you try to   
   >> write 9 bytes there and kaboom.  I've lost a lot of hair with those   
   >> ones,   
   >> when a program that's run fine for a couple of years suddenly dies.   
   >   
   > I have fixed bugs that were old enough to vote. Like the organisms in the   
   > permafrost in the plot lines of 'The Last ship' and 'Fortitude' they lay   
   > there in wait...   
   >   
   > 30 years ago programmers were very stingy with allocations.   
      
   I look at some code and wonder "how the heck has this ever worked?", but   
   the answer is that no one ever hit that combination of things before, or   
   used that option.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)