The C Standard charter was updated, now with security principles as well
The ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 committee oversees C Standard development, focusing on portability, efficiency, and stability. Collaboration with the C++ committee ensures compatibility. Principles guide feature integration, code efficiency, security, and adaptability.
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The C Standard charter, represented by the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 committee, oversees the development and maintenance of the C programming language. C, a versatile language crucial for system programming, has evolved since its inception on the Unix system for the PDP-11 computer. The committee aims to balance portability, efficiency, and stability while incorporating new ideas without compromising the language's core structure. Collaboration with the C++ committee ensures compatibility between the two languages. When revising C, the committee considers technical corrections, safety-critical software, security issues, and advancements in programming languages and implementations. Guided by principles like upholding the language's character, simplicity, portability, performance, and security, the committee ensures that new features integrate seamlessly, maintain code efficiency, and allow for programming freedom. The principles also emphasize avoiding ambiguities, facilitating migration to newer editions, and enabling secure and functional safety in programming. Additionally, the committee focuses on interoperability, adherence to international standards, and ensuring that C remains a widely implementable and adaptable language across diverse systems and architectures.
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6 commentsThe charter also calls for codifying known solutions, and not new inventions. But the known solutions for memory safety require things like more advanced type systems, that aren't in "the character of the language", and aren't "small and simple". Safety could be improved by severely restricting pointers, in conflict with the "programming freedom" principle, and of course performance overheads or backwards-incompatible changes are unacceptable.
So the charter says that C should have a cake and eat it.
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