From: jl@glen--canyon.com   
      
   On Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:36:13 +0000, Martin Brown   
   <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:   
      
   >On 19/02/2026 22:04, Don Y wrote:   
   >> [Obdisclaimer:  cc'ing s.e.d only because some of you are no longer   
   >> subscribed to the list and will likely not see this, otherwise.   
   >> And, its a substantial change in the API so worth noting.]   
   >>   
   >> Using similar mechanisms to those that I use in call-by-value RMIs,   
   >> I can protect against races for call-by-reference -- throwing an   
   >> exception or just spinning on any violations on the calling side.   
   >>   
   >> Or, I can just let people rely on their own discipline to   
   >> ensure they don't introduce latent bugs via this mechanism   
   >> (resorting to call by value universally seems a bad idea   
   >> for legacy coders).  As these types of races have typically   
   >> been hard to test for, I suspect it is worth the effort.   
   >>   
   >> Any pointers to languages or IDLs that include such qualifying   
   >> adjectives?   
   >   
   >Languages that allow call by reference to be qualified with a const or   
   >readonly directive so that the routine reading the original object (no   
   >copy made) is not allowed to alter the it in any way.   
   >   
   >Detectable as a compile time fault if you do. Relying on all coders to   
   >be disciplined is likely to be ahem... disappointing.   
   >   
   >I can't be the only one to have seen shops where the journeymen are so   
   >unskilled that getting C code to compile by the random application of   
   >casts is the norm. Not written in C but the UK scandalous Horizon PO   
   >accounting system was written by people of that calibre (thickness).   
   >   
   >They compounded the problem by having expert witnesses perjure   
   >themselves to convict entirely innocent postmasters of fraud because the   
   >computer was "infallible". The resulting mess is still ongoing.   
      
   Procedural coding with mostly punctuation marks is the mess. That is   
   going to change.   
      
   And lots of CE grads will be looking for any job they can find to pay   
   the rent.  I meet lots of them already.   
      
      
      
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   John Larkin   
   Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center   
   Lunatic Fringe Electronics   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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