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Hacktical C: practical hacker's guide to the C programming language

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218 points signa11 | 6 comments | 14 Apr 25 10:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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9d ◴[14 Apr 25 13:49 UTC] No.43681256[source]▶
> C doesn't try to save you from making mistakes. It has very few opinions about your code and happily assumes that you know exactly what you're doing. Freedom with responsibility.

I love C because it doesn't make my life very inconvenient to protect me from stubbing my toe in it. I hate C when I stub my toe in it.

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1. OCASMv2 ◴[14 Apr 25 15:43 UTC] No.43682578[source]▶
No, it just makes it inconvenient to try to protect yourself from stubbing your toe in it.
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2. codr7 ◴[14 Apr 25 17:34 UTC] No.43683891[source]▶
C doesn't make anything inconvenient, that's its major appeal. Some things are convenient by design, yes, but it's not trying to prevent you from doing anything. That's a feature.
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3. OCASMv2 ◴[14 Apr 25 18:23 UTC] No.43684488[source]▶
> C doesn't make anything inconvenient

Other than writing memory safe code, as history has shown.

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4. codr7 ◴[14 Apr 25 19:46 UTC] No.43685453{3}[source]▶
Difficult, not inconvenient.

Because it allows things that are difficult, like writing your own memory allocators.

If you don't like working at that difficulty level, then C programming isn't for you. And that's fine.

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5. OCASMv2 ◴[14 Apr 25 21:56 UTC] No.43686758{4}[source]▶
It doesn't allow me to write my own memory allocator, it forces me to.

This line of argumentation reminds me of this:

Advertise and promote a shortcoming or a fault as a virtue.

For example, ultra-cheap single-use film cameras are advertised as "No Focusing Required." The truth is, no focusing is possible, because those cameras have cheap plastic fixed-focus lenses that won't move and can't be focused. What is a serious shortcoming for a camera — the inability to properly focus on the subject — is sold as a convenience: "You don't have to bother with focusing."

https://orangepapers.eth.limo/orange-propaganda.html#make_vi...

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6. codr7 ◴[15 Apr 25 23:47 UTC] No.43699790{5}[source]▶
No it doesn't, malloc() and free() is the default.