Re: [Lit.] Buffer overruns

From: Xcott Craver (caj_at_B-r-a-i-n-H-z.com)
Date: 12/21/04 

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 08:57:04 GMT

Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@t-online.de> wrote:
>
>Sure. Certain drugs, for example, in the hands of doctors
>are fine but in the hands of laymen could be deadly.
   
       Exactly; and one of the big problems with computer programmers
       is that they tend to analogize themselves to highly skilled
       professionals, like surgeons.
    
       Programmers need to get over themselves, and understand that they
       are less like doctors, and more like uncertified laypeople trying
       to practice medicine with a pre-med degree and a sharp scalpel.
       My security and safety depends on whether programmers are too
       macho to adopt security and safety measures, on the grounds that
       "real programmers" don't need them.
   
       I am also annoyed by programmers analogizing themselves to artists--
       apparently programming is an "art" just because it has an aesthetic
       component--but that's another peeve entirely.
   
                                                        --X