Stop comparing programming languages

  • Python is versatile
  • JavaScript is powerful
  • Ruby is elegant
  • C is essential
  • C++
  • Java is robust
  • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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    5 months ago

    How? They go where they point, or to NULL, and can be moved by arithmetic. If you move them where they shouldn’t go, bad things happen. If you deference NULL, bad things happen. That’s it.

    what part of that is explicit to how scanf works?

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      I suppose if you treat scanf as a blackbox, then yeah, that would be confusing. If you know that it’s copying information into the buffer you gave it, obviously you cant fit more data into it than it’s sized for, and so the pointer must be wandering out of range.

      Maybe C would be better without stdlib, in that sense. Like, obviously it would be harder to use, but you couldn’t possibly be surprised by a library function’s lack of safeness if there were none.

      • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        yeah i mean if you grok the underlying workings of scanf then there’s no problem

        i’d just argue that the problem is understanding what you need to understand is the problem with straight c, and with any language like c++ where you’re liable to shoot thineself in thy foot