So start over 40 years of progress? Everything in my OS is written in C. Why am I always told not to use this language in HN if it's what my computer runs on. It's dangerous, sure, but seems like as a software engineer it's something I need to learn instead of run away from.

Progress is exactly what brought us safe languages. Proper engineering dictates eliminating, or reducing as much as possible dangerous/unsafe/etc. behavior. There's a reason C and C++ top the CVE lists with their buffer overflows and undefined behavior.

It's pretty much established that even expert C and C++ programmers, especially for larger code bases, will end up making some sort of mistake that will cause a security vulnerability or undefined behavior.

That's not my point, I don't contest that safe languages are safer. I contest the idea that we should "just use" something else. All my tools are written in C, the entire GNU toolchain is in C, how am I supposed to operate in this world if I "just don't use" C?

That is the disadvantage of open-source, it forces you to use the language of someone else's source.

I used Delphi on Windows. Most of the code I wrote in the last 20 years is in Pascal.

And that works really well on Windows. You have a stable API, and it does not matter what language the API is written in. Any language can use the API in the same way.

I tried to run some old projects this month. My 20 year old Delphi Windows programs run better in WINE on Linux than most programs I wrote 5 years using Linux tools, because the libraries have changed, but the API has not

I think OP was implying not to write new code in C. If possible, we can also use replacement tools written in safer languages if they offer the functionality we need (e.g. `ripgrep` instead of `grep`, or web servers written in safe languages over those written in C/C++).

ripgrep isn't POSIX compliant. It's hardly a proper replacement.

Right, it is intentionally not POSIX compliant. This saves fairly significant development effort and also permits expanding the tool to be more user friendly, such as transparently searching UTF-16 encoded files.

ripgrep cannot be a drop-in replacement. Despite that, it can certainly replace grep in a wide variety of use cases. See: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/master/FAQ.md#pos...

Congratulations. You have succesfully regurgitated the same sentence I've read here a thousand times.

Not only the last 5 years, but I digress.

Yeah, it's kind of weird how little attention some of C's (historical)competitors in the systems programming space get. You'd think to see a lot of comparisons to whatever Ada* or Pascal would do in the same context.

* Probably because the Ada practitioners are all trapped in Scifs somewhere in the inner mantle of the Earth.

That is why I use Pascal

20 years ago it was advertised as the safe C alternative.

No. I'd rather learn how to use my tools (that I have invested years to be comfortable with) properly than starting over.

I would have trouble convincing myself I'm capable of writing C that doesn't blow up randomly, when everyone else has been failing at that for my entire career and more.

C is not very productive.

Maybe, but it’s super fun and elegant. C and Scheme are at the top of my “most elegant” list. Though, of course, for different reasons.