Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhc!runyan
From: runyan@hpcuhc.HP.COM (Mark Runyan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: problems/risks due to programming language, stories requested
Message-ID: <2480008@hpcuhc.HP.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 90 16:37:45 GMT
References: <9790@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: HP GSY/USO/UKL Cupertino, CA, USA
Lines: 25

>/ freek@fwi.uva.nl (Freek Wiedijk) /  5:27 am  Mar 17, 1990 /
>> raw@math.arizona.edu (Rich Walters) writes:
>>
>>Do you refuse to drive a car because an irresponsible person could drive one
>>through a crowded play ground?
>>
>>Do you refuse to own a gun because someone could use a (not necessarily your)
>>gun to kill someone else?
>
>I would prefer to live in a world in which cars and guns don't exist.

OK, then what about knives, electricity, die-stamp machines, or fire?

All of these are dangerous and all are useful.  Just because C is dangerous
is *no* reason to avoid using it.  C is incredibly powerful and it gets
the job done.  Instead of saying that it should be thrown out, how about
saying that engineers using it should be trained in proper software
engineering techniques.  No matter what language you program in, as a
professional, you are interested in techniques that will improve your
work.  People advocating one language over another, whether that 
language be C, Ada, Pascal, Cobol, or APL, seem to forget that each
language has a purpose and place.  Might as well suggest that Esperanto
is better than English or French, for you may win about as many converts.

Mark Runyan