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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Simon Clubley Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Heartbleed Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:35:47 +0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <1ljwj8f.1wqbhvuabsdw1N%csampson@inetworld.net> <51c7d6d4-e3be-44d5-a4ce-f7e875345588@googlegroups.com> <%J32v.70539$kp1.45343@fx14.iad> <87tx9so50m.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> Injection-Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:35:47 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx05.eternal-september.org; posting-host="e458ff8b81bc0c159989eb0e36c6e372"; logging-data="25179"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18PQaDWJcnUBCW0caiYMI28/9a+slxMdno=" User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1 (VMS/Multinet) Cancel-Lock: sha1:K9dY21rCN3u/15P33Vtc/q6e9OI= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:19360 Date: 2014-04-17T22:35:47+00:00 List-Id: On 2014-04-17, Alan Jump wrote: > On Thursday, April 17, 2014 2:51:34 PM UTC-7, Shark8 wrote: >> Is there a reason that C as the 'core' component would be any better >> >> than, say, FORTH? > Are there FORTH compilers for every platform a C compiler runs on ? If you want to implement a mainstream library such as OpenSSL in a new safer language (such as Oberon-14), then your new library needs to be compilable on every platform the C version of OpenSSL is currently compilable on. That means your compiler (ie: Oberon-14) for this new library needs to be written in a language which allows it to run on the same platform as the platform's existing C compiler [*]. If it isn't then it won't get used (or at least in any meaningful way) because people will just use the version of the OpenSSL library which _does_ build on all the platforms they want to develop their application code on. The only compiler implementation language I can think of which matches the above criteria is C. I really don't know how many times I am going to have to repeat this. :-) If you think I am wrong, then, while telling me I am wrong :-), please also tell me why Ada isn't in much more wider use than it currently is. > Not in my mind, since CPUs don't care about the human-readable language...all > they care about is the bytecode the compiler generates. > I hope the above helps explain what the real core issue is here. [*] (This isn't sufficient, but it's a required pre-requisite. You also have the additional issue of supported target platforms as well in a cross compiler setup but that's not a function of the chosen compiler implementation language.) Simon. -- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world