"When people tell you that code does not matter or that language does not matter, just understand the comment for what it really means, "I am ashamed of the programming language and techniques I use but do not want to admit it so I prefer to blame problems on the rest of the world", and make the correct deduction: use a good programming language."
As emotionally satisfying as it can be to stick it to people we disagree with, I think we as an industry could do with a lot less of this black and white thinking.
Programming languages do not fall into a neat good/bad dichotomy. Tell me your favorite programming language and I will tell you three things that absolutely suck about it (even if I like it overall).
Yes, if C could do it all over again it would probably mandate that brace-less blocks go on the same line as the "if" (or are disallowed completely). So I agree with the author that certain features of programming languages can make it more or less error-prone.
But people still use C for a reason. That reason is that C has real advantages. If you really want to improve software engineering, then help the Rust guys out, but don't just tell C users to "use a good programming language."
As emotionally satisfying as it can be to stick it to people we disagree with, I think we as an industry could do with a lot less of this black and white thinking.
Programming languages do not fall into a neat good/bad dichotomy. Tell me your favorite programming language and I will tell you three things that absolutely suck about it (even if I like it overall).
Yes, if C could do it all over again it would probably mandate that brace-less blocks go on the same line as the "if" (or are disallowed completely). So I agree with the author that certain features of programming languages can make it more or less error-prone.
But people still use C for a reason. That reason is that C has real advantages. If you really want to improve software engineering, then help the Rust guys out, but don't just tell C users to "use a good programming language."