4 ms·

It's easy to see the advantages of memory safety, since it eliminates an entire class of bugs that C programs tend to suffer from, but I think talking about lan

by rossy 10y ago

It's easy to see the advantages of memory safety, since it eliminates an entire class of bugs that C programs tend to suffer from, but I think talking about language "ergonomics" is much more tenuous. One thing that C programmers tend to love about C is that it's simple. C doesn't have that many language constructs and that makes C programs easier to reason about, read and audit, which also makes it easier to find these non-obvious errors. A C programmer approaching an unfamiliar codebase can feel assured that it is made out of the same concise set of constructs as any other C program. On the other hand, modern languages like Rust, C# and Go are a lot more complicated. They have most of the language constructs of C, plus some extra, so not only do you have to understand the concepts in C, you also have to understand things like ownership, variance or pattern matching. Every new feature increases cognitive burden on the programmer. Adding something like exception handling, for example, means that control flow suddenly becomes more complex. Now, instead of only leaving at return statements, a function has a potential exit point anywhere it calls another function. "Smart" features that encourage terse code and reduce boilerplate can also result in code that is totally obtuse to anyone other than the person who wrote it. I'm not saying that C is at a sweet-spot for language complexity (Brainfuck is probably too simple, but OTOH it only has eight symbols!) I'm just saying that it's important to understand why a lot of developers really like C, and C is often praised for its simplicity. Any language that intends to replace C needs to understand why C programmers use C.

ssokolow 10y ago
I'd argue that talking about C's simplicity requires one big caveat... it gains that simplicity by delegating a lot of essential complexity to the underlying platform and the spec leaves a lot of details up to the compiler writers. While I'm sure experienced C developers will be used to that, one cannot simply read The C Programming Language, set a language reference on their desk, and safely learn how C will behave through experience because of all the unspecified or counter-intuitive things which often don't even trigger compiler warnings with -Weverything. While Rust may have more concepts to grasp and more grammar to remember, I find it far less of a mental burden to code in for the same reason that OOP proponents trumpet encapsulation... C forces me to constantly double-check that I haven't forgotten some detail of the language or GCC's implementation which is sensible if you understand the low-level implementation, but completely counter to my intuition. Rust allows me to audit the heck out of modules containing unsafe code to make sure the unsafety can't escape, then set it aside to think about another piece of the logic. Rust also places a stronger emphasis on making it possible to reason locally, bolstered by things like hygienic macros. Finally, simplicity does not automatically make something intuitive. (That's something I hear quite commonly among HCI people bemoaning how Apple has brilliantly used simplicity to convince iOS users that, if they get stumped by the UI, it's their own fault, not a failing on Apple's part.)
Too 10y ago
> A C programmer approaching an unfamiliar codebase can feel assured that it is made out of the same concise set of constructs as any other C program. Plus a shit load of user defined macros to make it look like a modern language. Every major c repo will have their own macros for foreach, cleanup on exit, logerrorandreturn, etc. Another example is extensive use of attributes like _cleanup_ from gcc to simulate raii, not plain c89 at all.

by rossy 10y ago

ssokolow 10y ago

I'd argue that talking about C's simplicity requires one big caveat... it gains that simplicity by delegating a lot of essential complexity to the underlying platform and the spec leaves a lot of details up to the compiler writers. While I'm sure experienced C developers will be used to that, one cannot simply read The C Programming Language, set a language reference on their desk, and safely learn how C will behave through experience because of all the unspecified or counter-intuitive things which often don't even trigger compiler warnings with -Weverything. While Rust may have more concepts to grasp and more grammar to remember, I find it far less of a mental burden to code in for the same reason that OOP proponents trumpet encapsulation... C forces me to constantly double-check that I haven't forgotten some detail of the language or GCC's implementation which is sensible if you understand the low-level implementation, but completely counter to my intuition. Rust allows me to audit the heck out of modules containing unsafe code to make sure the unsafety can't escape, then set it aside to think about another piece of the logic. Rust also places a stronger emphasis on making it possible to reason locally, bolstered by things like hygienic macros. Finally, simplicity does not automatically make something intuitive. (That's something I hear quite commonly among HCI people bemoaning how Apple has brilliantly used simplicity to convince iOS users that, if they get stumped by the UI, it's their own fault, not a failing on Apple's part.)

Too 10y ago

> A C programmer approaching an unfamiliar codebase can feel assured that it is made out of the same concise set of constructs as any other C program. Plus a shit load of user defined macros to make it look like a modern language. Every major c repo will have their own macros for foreach, cleanup on exit, logerrorandreturn, etc. Another example is extensive use of attributes like _cleanup_ from gcc to simulate raii, not plain c89 at all.