alt Hacker NewsZero terminated strings were the basis for an awful lot of useful software. Calling them the biggest mistake in computing is a bit OTT.
I haven’t programmed anything Pascal related for 30+ years but I dimly remember thinking at the time that I wished the string system wasn’t so hard to use.
Replies
ComputerGuru • today at 3:47 AM
That argument isn’t valid. The argument would be “this string design enabled a whole lot of useful software” but that’s a different matter. (And it could very well be the case.)
zzrrt • today at 6:26 AM
Lead was the basis for an awful lot of useful gasoline. Doesn't mean it was the only solution or the best one.
JdeBP • today at 6:47 AM
A more accurate re-phrased version of the original is that they are the biggest mistake in the C language.
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48614913
That useful software would not have been less useful if the strings in it were represented as size + buf.