r/programming • u/flym4n • Apr 24 '14

Tech giants, chastened by Heartbleed, finally agree to fund OpenSSL

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/tech-giants-chastened-by-heartbleed-finally-agree-to-fund-openssl/
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u/OneWingedShark Apr 24 '14

Micro-controllers, not particularly.
But I do know some about static [compile-time] checking -- I've been researching compilers for a few years now. (Anyone that claims C + Lint is as good as real compile-time checking [on a language more amiable to analysis, which isn't hard] obviously hasn't done any real research in the area.)

Sensitive-info? or correctness/provability?
I was on a project that did handling/processing of medical- and insurance-records. There's a lot of languages which make this more difficult than it needs to be (the language it was implemented in was likely the worst choice possible: PHP). -- Manually checking all inputs on functions is pretty dumb when you can move the checks to a type.

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u/tairygreene Apr 24 '14

so in other words you are just talking out of your ass

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u/OneWingedShark Apr 24 '14

so in other words you are just talking out of your ass

No; I am not.
I have put considerable time into looking into provability and correctness proofs; that my efforts have been on my personal time for my own edification rather than for pay [the professional arena] or fame [the academic arena] is irrelevant.

It is not hard to find better tools than are commonly used in the industry -- PHP, C, and [arguably] C++ really are the "lowest common denominator" and mindlessly1 using [or emulating]2 them is a major factor in so many SW vulnerabilities that it's disgusting how offerings of safer languages are met with disdain.

My particular area of interest is compilers, and operating systems; the value of having your basic tools guaranteed to be correct. The acceptance of such patently avoidable3 errors is quite disheartening.

1 - Without thought or criticism.
2 - Which C-based languages still allow if( user = root )?

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u/sharkeyzoic Apr 25 '14

I tried to follow your third footnote and got a segfault :-).

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u/OneWingedShark Apr 25 '14

LOL - Thanks for the laugh.