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0 pointshappy_dino12y ago0 comments

Yeah, let's use a memory unsafe language, handle memory management by hand and just completely ignore the fact that no human being has ever managed to consistently write bullet-proof code in it.

Using software which automates memory management, engineered by the brightest minds on this topic, is for hipsters, right?

I guess you also roll your own crypto and implement stuff in assembler “for performance”?

0 comments

CCs12y ago

It depends on the use case.

Sometimes you need performance or there are other constraints, in which case your choice of language is very limited.

Automated memory management works, but not all the time. And how about other resources? How you make sure your mutex gets released? Add a comment "please don't forget to release this one"? How about file handle, temporary file, serial port, DMA, GPU, network port and other limited resources?

BTW, I think most of the brightest minds you mention use C or C++ on daily basis. :)

betterunix12y ago

"Automated memory management works, but not all the time."

[citation needed]

"BTW, I think most of the brightest minds you mention use C or C++ on daily basis"

I doubt it. Most of the brightest minds I have met, at least in academia, use high-level languages: Python, OCaml, Lisp, Haskell, etc. They have more important things to worry about than whether or not it is safe to deallocate objects.

CCs12y ago

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses"

Do you realize that almost everything widely used today is implemented in C, C++ or ObjectiveC?

All the operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android), most of the desktop apps (Office, Photoshop), programming languages (PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, both Sun and IBM JVMs), browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox), web servers (Apache, nginx), database (Oracle, MS SQL, mySQL, Postgres, Redis, MongoDB), Google's search engine, eBay, Bing, Facebook, most of the games, embedded medical devices etc.

http://www.stroustrup.com/applications.html

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0 pointshappy_dino12y ago0 comments

Yeah, let's use a memory unsafe language, handle memory management by hand and just completely ignore the fact that no human being has ever managed to consistently write bullet-proof code in it.

Using software which automates memory management, engineered by the brightest minds on this topic, is for hipsters, right?

I guess you also roll your own crypto and implement stuff in assembler “for performance”?

0 comments

CCs12y ago

It depends on the use case.

Sometimes you need performance or there are other constraints, in which case your choice of language is very limited.

BTW, I think most of the brightest minds you mention use C or C++ on daily basis. :)

betterunix12y ago

"Automated memory management works, but not all the time."

[citation needed]

"BTW, I think most of the brightest minds you mention use C or C++ on daily basis"

CCs12y ago

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses"

Do you realize that almost everything widely used today is implemented in C, C++ or ObjectiveC?

http://www.stroustrup.com/applications.html

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse