> But using a language like Ruby or PHP, for instance, doesn't really lead to fewer bugs, or more advanced software, or cheaper software, or fewer security concerns in practice.
Which domain are we talking about? Of course web-based applications have their own problems, but imagine if idiomatic Ruby or PHP code was vulberable to buffer overflows, double-free/use-after-free or format string vulnerabilities on top of the current problems, would you still say that languages don't matter when it comes to software development problems and issues? Essentially, what you're saying is that modern programming languages aren't any more better in practice in said regards than C. Honestly?
Of course no language can prevent outright bad code, but a language, by it's design, can eliminate issues related to for example type safety and memory safety. Consider Rust as an example of this. What this means in practice is that the language by it's design manages to eliminate these issues. Code is less prone to bugs and has no security concerns related to these issues. More time for validating correct behavior and fixing misbehaving parts.
> But we shouldn't be claiming that using a language like Ruby or Python somehow leads to more secure code. It doesn't, and it's dangerous to think that it does.
What on earth am I reading? What are the equivalents to buffer overflow or format string vulnerability in Python or Ruby? How do I execute arbitrary machine code with Python or Ruby if malicious input is given to the vulnerable program?
Which domain are we talking about? Of course web-based applications have their own problems, but imagine if idiomatic Ruby or PHP code was vulberable to buffer overflows, double-free/use-after-free or format string vulnerabilities on top of the current problems, would you still say that languages don't matter when it comes to software development problems and issues? Essentially, what you're saying is that modern programming languages aren't any more better in practice in said regards than C. Honestly?
Of course no language can prevent outright bad code, but a language, by it's design, can eliminate issues related to for example type safety and memory safety. Consider Rust as an example of this. What this means in practice is that the language by it's design manages to eliminate these issues. Code is less prone to bugs and has no security concerns related to these issues. More time for validating correct behavior and fixing misbehaving parts.
> But we shouldn't be claiming that using a language like Ruby or Python somehow leads to more secure code. It doesn't, and it's dangerous to think that it does.
What on earth am I reading? What are the equivalents to buffer overflow or format string vulnerability in Python or Ruby? How do I execute arbitrary machine code with Python or Ruby if malicious input is given to the vulnerable program?