But why are they better and does this really matter?
What Is the White House Saying?
Why Is It Important?
Andrea Izzotti /Shutterstock
US policy is likely to have a ripple effect across the world of technology.
Many ofthe worst-ever security vulnerabilitieshad problems with memory safety as their root cause.
Regardless, usage of memory-safe languageslike Rust, Python, and JavaScripthas long been on the increase.
What Does an Unsafe Language Look Like?
Unsafe code doesnt always look scary or even complicated.
Many hackers throughout history have exploited such bugs.
Although the C compiler still produces a warning, it also generates an executable.
A programmer is free to ignore warnings, and even hide them using compiler flags.
What Does Memory-Safe Code Look Like?
In a memory-safe language like Rust, the same problem simply doesn’t exist.
Rust simply will not let you run this code.
Rust has many more features besides this, to help protect you.
Itincludes features like smart pointersto handle memory management automatically and prevent null pointer dereferencing.
Should I Switch Languages?
C has its uses, but there are safer options that will cause fewer mishaps.
