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If you want a job as an entry level programmer, do not bother learning C, go with something like C#, JavaScript, Java, or Python. The author doesn't really lis
by mastrsushi 8y ago
If you want a job as an entry level programmer, do not bother learning C, go with something like C#, JavaScript, Java, or Python.
The author doesn't really list any viable reasons to use C over any more modern, convenient language. Just the whole "shows you how memory management really works". A lot of C programmers remind me of the die hard Gentoo/Arch Linux people who think it'll help them "show you how Linux really works".
- tannhaeuser 8y agoThe value of learning asm and C doesn't necessarily come from using these languages, but lies in understanding how a CPU works and how memory is laid out and managed. So that you can put abstractions and automatic memory management to good work. There's a reason Knuth uses his MIX assembler language for discussing algorithms and algorithmitic complexity analysis. If you don't know these things, you basically don't know what you're doing when you're programming a computer.
- DonaldFisk 8y agoMaybe, but the author writes: "This book is for anyone wanting to learn C, or who has once wondered how to build their own programming language ... But C is not about software development and careers." So the author has something else in mind: building a high level language from the hardware up. C#, JavaScript, Java, and Python already contain much of the basic functionality of Lisp, most importantly a garbage collector, memory safety, and high-level data types.