Being safe on the internet (was Re: Here we go again - ISP DPI, but is it interception?)

Ian Batten igb at batten.eu.org
Mon Aug 9 19:35:35 BST 2010


> Of course you can write secure stuff I any language - it's just that  
> it's extremely difficult in things like C++ and others of that ilk  
> (and you have to avoid use of some of its features)

And, by extension, you can write FORTRAN in anything, although I was  
impressed by this: http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1039535

If there's anyone alive that hasn't read the original "real  
programmers" article, which opens

> The easiest way to tell a Real Programmer from the crowd is by the  
> programming language he (or she) uses. Real Programmers use Fortran.  
> Quiche Eaters use Pascal. Nicklaus Wirth, the designer of Pascal,  
> gave a talk once at which he was asked, "How do you pronounce your  
> name?". He replied, "You can either call me by name, pronouncing it  
> 'Veert', or call me by value, 'Worth'." One can tell immediately by  
> this comment that Nicklaus Wirth is a Quiche Eater. The only  
> parameter passing mechanism endorsed by Real Programmers is call-by- 
> value-return, as implemented in the IBM/370 Fortran G and H  
> compilers. Real Programmers don't need all these abstract concepts  
> to get their jobs done-- they are perfectly happy with a keypunch, a  
> Fortran IV compiler, and a beer.

it's currently available at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html


Although I notice one irony, after our friends in the US lost a probe  
through confusing imperial and metric units (and one is reminded of  
Benneton F1, who when they had US-designed Ford engines opted to  
replace all the external fasteners with custom-made ones with imperial  
threads and metric heads, so as to only need one set of spanners for  
fly-aways).

> The current plan for the Galileo spacecraft is to use a gravity  
> assist trajectory past Mars on the way to Jupiter. This trajectory  
> passes within 80 +/- 3 kilometers of the surface of Mars. Nobody is  
> going to trust a Pascal program (or Pascal programmer) for  
> navigation to these tolerances.
>

How did that work out later?



ian
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