XPost: alt.folklore.computers, alt.unix.geeks   
   From: tnp@invalid.invalid   
      
   On 07/01/2026 22:49, rbowman wrote:   
   > On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 13:30:14 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2026-01-06 19:57, Charlie Gibbs wrote:   
   >>> On 2026-01-06, Lars Poulsen  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 2026-01-06, Carlos E.R.  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> My C teacher said it was a mistake to use C as an all purpose   
   >>>>> language, like for userland applications. Using C is the cause of   
   >>>>> many bugs that a proper language would catch.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> That was around 1991.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> He knew. He participated in some study tasked by the Canadian   
   >>>>> government to study C compilers, but he could not talk about what   
   >>>>> they wrote.   
   >>>   
   >>> What language(s) did he suggest instead?   
   >>   
   >> I don't remember if he did. Maybe he told samples, but I think he mostly   
   >> told us of quirks of the language, things that were errors, but that the   
   >> compiler did not signal, so that we being aware we would write correct C   
   >> code.   
   >>   
   >> It is possible that current C compilers signal many more problems that   
   >> back then, but not runtime errors.   
   >   
   > gcc has become pickier. That isn't always a welcome thing when working   
   > with legacy code and requires a search of the compiler options to get it   
   > to shut up about such horrible heresies as assuming a function returns an   
   > int.   
   >   
   >   
   Actually I welcome that. at leats 10% of the time the compiler finds a   
   bug that way, and the other 90% i upgrade the source to be more explicit...   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >   
      
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