Those Who Say Code Does Not Matter
I really don't see how enforcing {} syntax on all conditionals is going to make us so much safer.Yes, people make mistakes, but this is a pretty huge screw-up. If you are modifying an unbraced if-statement and aren't paying attention to scoping, then you are being woefully negligent at your job. Especially when you are working on cryptographic code used by millions of people to protect their most valuable information.So let's say we force more red tape to make sure this doesn't happen. Those of us who pay attention to scoping probably won't mind too much, it's good practice to do this anyway.But what about the mediocre programmer? He may decide that now his if/else if/else three-liner, when adding new lines for {}, should really just turn into a switch/case. And now he neglects a fall-through case, or adds an unconditional break; before important code. And we're right back where we started.It doesn't matter how much we safeguard and dumb down languages. We can load our languages full of red-tape: extra braces, no jumping or breaking, no fall-throughs, always requiring explicit conversions, no pointers, no null types ... all we'll end up with is code that is much harder to read (and possibly write), while the mediocre programmers will find new and inventive ways to screw things up. It's just as likely to make them even more lax, and attract even less disciplined programmers into important development roles. You know, since it's presumed to be so much safer now.The real problem is the amount of poor programmers out there, and the lack of repercussions for these sorts of things. A doctor that leaves a scalpel in a patient is (rightly) ruined for negligence. Do you think the "goto fail;" writer even received a written warning? Why not?I'm not saying people can't make mistakes, but I think your pay scale and the importance of what you do should come with some actual responsibility for your errors. Just like in every other profession out there.Yes, sometimes you can blame the tool. But there are also times when you need to blame the user.