Python cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo

Python cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo

> And however much you want to blame the programmer, if programmers keep on doing it, it's a design fault ...

Got it. So we have issues with C which even Rust doesn't fully address:

— if you put check outside of loop the it would't test all elements of array.

— if you initialize your variable after it's used then program doesn't work.

— if you change the variable then other variables (which were calculated on basis on that variable) don't change as they should.

— you need to actually allocate memory for your data structure, just declaring pointer doesn't mean you can use these.

And I can probably add dozens more.

</sarcasm off>.

Granted: these are expectations of people who have started studying programming about two month ago… but they are very-very common.

Should we do something about them? If yes then what… if no, then why the heck no?…

Sure — but pretty much anything can break it if programmer is not taught properly.

The C (and C++) suffer mostly from Hyrum's Law: many thing which were supposed not to work… actually work — with real-world compiler. And then, later… they stop (even if documentation always warned not to use them)… that is when trouble happens (think glibc story).

That's the only problem with C/C++… but it's pretty severe: C language on paper and C language as implemented by typical compiler were different for so long that it's unclear what can be done at this point.

The thing is: I'm not sure switching to Rust (or any other language) would save us. After 10-20-30 years they would be in the same situation, too.

I'm not even really sure what can be done about it. Have just one fixed compiler without any changes? I don't think it would really work.