On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 07:49:22PM +0000, Peter Duffy wrote:
> Maybe memory safety is actually not a property of the language or the
> program - but of the programmer?
>
> Most languages have features which can be very useful, but which can
> also be dangerous if misused, either carelessly or deliberately
> (pointer arithmetic in C is only one example). The onus is on the
> programmer being skilled and diligent enough to use the features
> safely.

But some languages have large safe subsets that are adequate and
convenient for most programming tasks. And they furthemore are
designed so that it is easy to restrict oneself to those subsets
and the restriction can be efficiently checked by machine.

Modula 3 is one of those languges. Its unsafe features can be
use only in modules explicitly marke UNSAFE. And they are almost
never needed.

C is not one of those languages.

Nor is assembler.

-- hendrik