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Programming Language Theory Flashcard

What is language safety, both formally and informally?

Books Concepts Deckprogramming-language-basic

Question

What is language safety, both formally and informally?

Answer

Informally, a safe language would not allow a programmer to shoot in their foot.

There are various definitions of a safe language:

  • Portability: What is the portability perspective on language safety?

  • A safe language is one that protects its own abstractions, not allowing an erroneous program to corrupt its state or runtime system.

  • A safe language is one that does not have untrapped runtime errors.