Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lproven 2051 days ago
I think they are, but OTOH I think that's acceptably safe when it's a single-user, client-side-only OS written in a rigorously bounds-checked, type-safe language.

I suspect that the obsession with process isolation in xNix reflects its origins: as a terminal-based multi-user OS written in perhaps the least-safe high-level language ever developed, one in which it is necessary to deploy terrible techniques such as pointer arithmetic just to get anything done at all.
1 comments
vram22 2050 days ago
Mostly agree. Didn't know Oberon was a single user OS, though I did read that Wirth was also involved with creating the Lilith workstation (he missed the chance to call it a Wirthstation :), so it could make sense that Oberon was single-user too.

What's so wrong with C pointer arithmetic, per se? I know about the issues with pointers in general, having used C a lot, earlier. But the arithmetic?

link
lproven 2048 days ago
There are multiple issues with pointer arithmetic and it is widely regarded as one of the weakest, most failure-prone points in the C language.

Some discussion: https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~richardw/classes/cs31/s18/off...

http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~reeves.92/CSE2421au12/SlidesD...

link
vram22 2048 days ago
Thanks, will look at those.
link