From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107f24,582dff0b3f065a52 X-Google-Attributes: gid107f24,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,582dff0b3f065a52 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,582dff0b3f065a52 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-02 02:20:01 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!213.56.195.71!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!newsfeed.wirehub.nl!news.worldonline.nl!newsclients!news.worldonline.nl!not-for-mail From: info@hoekstra-uitgeverij.nl (Richard Bos) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.functional Subject: Re: How Ada could have prevented the Red Code distributed denial of service attack. Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 08:54:00 GMT Organization: Go wash your mouth. Message-ID: <3b691431.1115839021@news.worldonline.nl> References: <3B672322.B5EA1B66@home.com> <9k9ilv$jds$1@farviolet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: vp177-146.worldonline.nl X-Trace: nereid.worldonline.nl 996743890 899 195.241.177.146 (2 Aug 2001 09:18:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@worldonline.nl NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Aug 2001 09:18:10 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.21/32.243 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11058 comp.lang.c:71589 comp.lang.c++:79296 comp.lang.functional:7167 Date: 2001-08-02T09:18:10+00:00 List-Id: entropy@farviolet.com (Lawrence Foard) wrote: > The irony is that this problem starts in CS departments where kids are still > taught to use 'char *' instead of a string class. No, the irony is that this problem does indeed start in CS departments, because students[1] are taught in C++ and Ada, because these can be used to teach safely and easily - which is good - but _not_ beyond that, into "what can actually go wrong" territory - which is not good. The result is too many students who leave not knowing about such things as possible overflow, and thus don't know how to avoid it. In this way, languages designed to promote safer programming actually promote unsafer programming, by not promoting knowledge about what _is_ unsafe. Richard [1] Since when, btw, is a student a "kid"?