[TUHS] Comments on "C"

Seen on another list... And I got quoted by Steve Bellovin :-) -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kent Borg To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com Subject: Re: [Cryptography] "NSA-linked Cisco exploit poses bigger threat than previously thought" On 08/25/2016 06:06 PM, Steven M. Bellovin wrote: Ancient fun-fact: Years ago there was an article in Byte magazine describing how a useful subset of C could be directly assembled into 68000 code. Not compiled, assembled. C is a stunning assembly language. When those wild-eyed nerds at AT&T decided to write Unix not in assembly but in C (where was management!?), it was radical. But C was up to (down to?) the task, it was pioneering then and is still doing useful things decades later: From the fastest supercomputers to some pretty slim microcontrollers (plus a hell of a lot of Android devices) multitudes of computers run a Linux kernel compiled from the *same* C source code, with almost no assembly. Big-endian, little-endian: no matter. Different word lengths: no matter. That is one impressive cross-platform assembly language! Unfortunately, C is also a dangerous language that mortal programmers cannot reliably wield. -kb, the Kent who knows he is pressing his luck on a moderated cryptography mailing list, but C deserves a lot of respect, as it also deserves to be efficiently sent into a dignified retirement. _______________________________________________ The cryptography mailing list cryptography(a)metzdowd.com http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography