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"Am I predicting the imminent extinction of C? No. For the foreseeable future I think it will retain a pretty firm grip on OS kernels and device firmware. There

"Am I predicting the imminent extinction of C? No. For the foreseeable future I think it will retain a pretty firm grip on OS kernels and device firmware. There, the old imperative to squeeze out maximum performance even if it means using an unsafe language still has force." Maybe, but there are projects like D's betterC[1] that are designed to remove that reason to use C as well. [1] https://dlang.org/blog/2017/08/23/d-as-a-better-c/ https://dlang.org/blog/2017/08/23/d-as-a-better-c/

krylon 9y ago
D is a sweet language, but there are lots of CPUs/Microcontrollers for which C compilers are available, but not much else (except assembly).
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Once upon a time, C was only available in expensive UNIX workstations.
  - krylon 9y ago
    I do not work in embedded systems, so take anything I say with a grain of salt (or more!). If D became available in all of those embedded platforms, I am sure lots of people would rejoice. Or maybe they would just shrug because they would not know what hit them. But it would be their loss, because D is, in many ways, C++ "done right". Which IMHO is a remarkable achievement. Either way, I would not hold my breath for C becoming obsolete in the sense of "no one is using it any more". It is not happy, but for now it is all we've got.
    - scruple 9y ago
      > I am sure lots of people would rejoice I'm one of those people and I spent ~6 years in embedded and I still write C today (though it's no longer my primary language). Of my former co-workers, probably 50 people in total across 4 teams, exactly 0 of them were at all interested in any sort of C alternative. I'd wager less than 6 of them even knew what C alternatives were even picking up steam. If it wasn't talked about by folks like Michael Barr or Embedded magazine, they simply wouldn't have any way of finding out. > Either way, I would not hold my breath for C becoming obsolete I wouldn't either. Call it the old guard, call them greybeards, it really doesn't matter. They're the ones buying chips from vendors that supply C toolchains and compilers. Until that is addressed, none of this talk matters.
      - pjmlp 9y ago
        Which is why there is the saying that progress can only be achieved by replacing generations.
emodendroket 9y ago
I'm guessing nobody wants to entirely rewrite all of the notable operating systems in the world today.
- bachmeier 9y ago
  IMO the main advantage of betterC is that you can add new code/partially rewrite old code in D and then integrate it into the existing C project. The limitation (as someone else pointed out) is the possible nonexistence of a D compiler for a given platform.

krylon 9y ago

D is a sweet language, but there are lots of CPUs/Microcontrollers for which C compilers are available, but not much else (except assembly).

pjmlp 9y ago
Once upon a time, C was only available in expensive UNIX workstations.
- krylon 9y ago
  I do not work in embedded systems, so take anything I say with a grain of salt (or more!). If D became available in all of those embedded platforms, I am sure lots of people would rejoice. Or maybe they would just shrug because they would not know what hit them. But it would be their loss, because D is, in many ways, C++ "done right". Which IMHO is a remarkable achievement. Either way, I would not hold my breath for C becoming obsolete in the sense of "no one is using it any more". It is not happy, but for now it is all we've got.
  - scruple 9y ago
    > I am sure lots of people would rejoice I'm one of those people and I spent ~6 years in embedded and I still write C today (though it's no longer my primary language). Of my former co-workers, probably 50 people in total across 4 teams, exactly 0 of them were at all interested in any sort of C alternative. I'd wager less than 6 of them even knew what C alternatives were even picking up steam. If it wasn't talked about by folks like Michael Barr or Embedded magazine, they simply wouldn't have any way of finding out. > Either way, I would not hold my breath for C becoming obsolete I wouldn't either. Call it the old guard, call them greybeards, it really doesn't matter. They're the ones buying chips from vendors that supply C toolchains and compilers. Until that is addressed, none of this talk matters.
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      Which is why there is the saying that progress can only be achieved by replacing generations.

emodendroket 9y ago

I'm guessing nobody wants to entirely rewrite all of the notable operating systems in the world today.

bachmeier 9y ago
IMO the main advantage of betterC is that you can add new code/partially rewrite old code in D and then integrate it into the existing C project. The limitation (as someone else pointed out) is the possible nonexistence of a D compiler for a given platform.