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Despite its age, despite many flaws, C is still the de facto standard, the lingua franca. Why? As with other older languages, inertia is partly to blame, but th
by kbenson 8y ago
Despite its age, despite many flaws, C is still the de facto standard, the lingua franca. Why? As with other older languages, inertia is partly to blame, but this cannot be the only reason. C must possess a near-perfect balance of vital language features.
A flawed premise. Why must C contain a new-perfect balance of vital language features to persist? Why can inertia and familiarity not be to blame?
It's fine to list C's qualities, it has many (and it also has many warts), but if your opening statement makes two very powerful and clear assertions such as those, you would think they would be the point of the article, or at a minimum addressed within the body. They are not.
- adrianmonk 8y agoA more accurate formulation might be something like this: positives(C) - negatives(C) + inertia(C) > positives(other) - negatives(other) There are multiple things on both sides here. The author more or less asserted without evidence that inertia isn't the dominant term. Also, inertia might not be a good analogy. Things with inertia might move slowly but will move eventually even given the smallest force. This is probably more like energy wells where you can become trapped in a local minimum.
- eridius 8y agoinertia + friction then.