From the article:

>In order to use these functions correctly you have to do this sort of nonsense.

    char buffer[5];
    strncpy(buffer, “Thisisalongstring”, sizeof(buffer));
    buffer[sizeof(buffer)-1] = 0;

Actually, its more like this:

    char buffer[5] = {0};
    strncpy(buffer, "This is a long string", sizeof buffer  - sizeof buffer[0]);

(edit: sizeof, not sizeof()! edit2: bugfix!)

But okay, maybe your compiler won't let you do that (it should). Oh. We've already touched on what Microsoft won't let you do .. maybe Microsoft won't let you do that. (In which case the answer should be: don't use Microsoft).

But anyway .. then the author says this:

>We are programmers, are we not? If the functions we are given to deal with strings are difficult to use correctly then we should write new ones.

Umm: NO! Learn to use your tools properly and stop re-inventing the wheel to fit your misunderstanding of the world! BILLIONS of lines of code out there use strncpy() and other n-fn variants, and guess what: even in safety-critical, life-threatening, embedded environments!

This article should really be titled: "If you are going to use strncpy(), and you're scared of it, THEN DON'T DEPLOY WITHOUT FULL CODE COVERAGE TESTING!"

NB: edit2 GOTCHA! Coverage, people.