> those two groups are three orders of magnitude apart
They aren't necessarily, though. Supposing that Zig were "10 issues per MLoC" (with just as much handwaving as the original poster), it would be equidistant from Rust and C. Java may also be more than one order of magnitude away from Rust; we say ~0 but is it 0.01, 0.001, 0.0001...? And why is "1 issue per MLoC" the acceptable metric that delineates what constitutes table-stakes memory-safe language? Because it's a nice, round-sounding number? I think 0 is a nicer, rounder number than 1, so let's call only Java table stakes and condemn all other languages to the garbage bin, tradeoffs be damned. Or would you say your arbitrary delineation point is worth more than mine?
> Or would you say your arbitrary delineation point is worth more than mine?
Yes for the reasons I already gave. I think that at the point that you're having to stretch the numbers from their post to the breaking point to remove the pretty clear order of magnitude differences it's not really a constructive way to engage.
I think you have two groups with one at ~.1 and one on ~100. You seen to either disagree with that, or think it doesn't matter, I'm not sure which. But taking that assumption as true it is self evident that the 3-order-of magnitude demarcation is not arbitrary.