Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create 548, 000 Zcoins

[H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d]

On Sat, Mar 11, 2017 at 01:46:31PM +0100, Timon Gehr via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 10.03.2017 23:41, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> > 
> > Basically, operator syntax is just too specific to the arithmetical
> > meanings of the operators that overloading them to mean something
> > else seems like just asking for trouble.
> 
> OTOH, restricting how operators can be overloaded means they cannot be
> used for symbolic mathematics, which is annoying.

I think you misunderstand my intent. By "arithmetical meanings" I meant
any meanings to which mathematics may assign to said operators, so using
"x + y" for vector addition, for example, is fair game. And perhaps even
field addition for general fields. But using "x + y" for division is
abusive, for example, and so is using "+" for appending to a file.

But in any case, this isn't something that's enforceable. Deciding
whether an implementation of an overload of "+" is "addition-like" is
probably undecidable. It's just bad practice to use "+" for something
that someone reading the code wouldn't expect. The bottom line is really
readability and maintainability than anything else.


T

-- 
My program has no bugs! Only unintentional features...