this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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White House urges developers to dump C and C++::Biden administration calls for developers to embrace memory-safe programing languages and move away from those that cause buffer overflows and other memory access vulnerabilities.

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[–] OutrageousUmpire@lemmy.world 72 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I’m not sure what to think about this. It’s bizarre, the White House making any recommendations on programming languages.

They’re definitely not seen as an authority in this field. Why would anyone care what recommendation they make? And so why make one at all?

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 66 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They’re definitely not seen as an authority in this field. Why would anyone care what recommendation they make?

It's possible that they are acting on the advice of advisors who are authorities in this field.

And so why make one at all?

I expect it's because information and industrial security are components of national security, which is of great concern to them, and those things depend on software.

I'm not surprised to see this, given that state-sponsored electronic attacks are on the rise these days.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

This is exactly why people sound sophomoric when they say "lobbying needs to go!" There are some drastic problems with lobbying as it is allowed now, but the last thing we need is the government regulating things they know nothing about without the input of experts. On top of that, it's nonsense that I can't pass my local councilman on the street and stop and push them to spend more time addressing important issues like climate change.

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's important to remember that the argument against lobbying isn't about the broadest sense of the word "lobbying", but rather about corporations and other moneyed interests having unfair and unhealthy influence over the laws that govern everyone else.

The people who decry lobbying probably agree with you; they're just using the word in an implicitly narrow context.

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[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It’s a national security threat

[–] parens@programming.dev 12 points 8 months ago

C/C++ is a threat to mental stability

[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

NIST are the experts guiding the White House.

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[–] someacnt_@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

There have been words around this, like how software should be safe by design, but the regulation should come from the governing entity. This is simply materialized now, but there has been momentum.

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[–] JoMomma@lemm.ee 60 points 8 months ago

Gov is getting rusty

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 58 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree, let's start with dumping Windows.

[–] foobaz@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Done, next the Linux kernel? 😱

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 7 points 8 months ago

It's a hard sacrifice to make, but if that means killing Windows, then mwahahaha... I mean, MS's power lies in supporting all that legacy.

[–] omega_x3@lemmy.world 45 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Team Fortran raise up, but not too fast our old bones aren't as strong as they used to be.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 8 months ago

Maybe you can use Team COBOL's wheelchairs as walkers?

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[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 43 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Good luck with that, C/C++ are still crazy popular

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)

well... that's the point - if they weren't this wouldn't be a concern

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago

We really need to get the kids to stop programming with punch cards. /s

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[–] parens@programming.dev 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

C/C++: so bad that even the white house takes notice 😂

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

C isn't bad. It has been a good portable assembly language for ages, and remains so today. What's problematic is continuing to use it where more advanced languages now make more sense.

I won't defend C++, though. I'm happy to kick it to the curb now that better alternatives are gaining traction.

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[–] darkevilmac@lemmy.zip 28 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Probably a good idea, plenty of languages out there that can give good performance while being memory safe nowadays.

[–] hagelslager@feddit.nl 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Such as? (Non-programmer here, so I don't know the ins and outs of programming languages.)

[–] darkevilmac@lemmy.zip 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Zig and Rust come to mind, at least for replacements for low level languages.

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[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] scharf_2x40@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Isn't that only microsoft exclusive and closed source? Also does compiling it really yield the same speed as C, it is garbage collected isn't it?

[–] lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Was always possible to compile+run C# on Linux using the Mono project. Until Microsoft "bought them out" and created .NET Core, a cross platform version of .NET that MS now encourages people to use instead...

Microsoft's new linux compile tools rub me the wrong way slightly, with the telemetry that's opt-in by default.

Mono is still extremely valuable for older .NET Framework apps under WINE though, way easier to setup compared to the official installers from what i've experienced.

No idea how compiled C# compares to C...

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[–] Dzeimis@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

Wtf, I thought this was a meme...

[–] _NetNomad@kbin.run 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

segmentation fault (c and c++ dumped)

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[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

Good reason to not drop C and C++

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 8 points 8 months ago

“We, as a nation, have the ability—and the responsibility—to reduce the attack surface in cyberspace and prevent entire classes of security bugs from entering the digital ecosystem but that means we need to tackle the hard problem of moving to memory safe programming languages,” National Cyber Director Harry Coker said in the White House news release.

o7

[–] Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 8 months ago
[–] makozuma@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Can’t we just bring back Forth and call it a day?

[–] frankenswine@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

sad stroustroup noises

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