Re: Virus Resistive Software

[Jeffrey Carter <spam@spam.com>]

Robert C. Leif wrote:
 > It appears from the latest news reports, that present commercial
 > software, particularly email programs, is susceptible to attack by
 > viruses. A question with a very big payoff is could software written
 > in Ada and perhaps in part in XML be made significantly more virus
 > resistant than present commercial software, such as Microsoft�
 > Outlook�? For instance, would the strong type checking of both Ada
 > and XML schema help.

The problem is more the insistence on using software that is known to be 
vulnerable and faulty, such as Outlook, despite the availability of 
better software. For example, I use Mozilla, and have had no problems 
with the current crop of viruses and worms. Outlook is probably the most 
vulnerable mail program out there; at least when I had to use it, by 
default it installed with most of its protections turned off, and most 
of its most vulnerable features turned on. Nevertheless, it is probably 
the most widely used mail program. No amount of decent engineering can 
solve this problem.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate."
Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
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