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C is far from simple, a simple language would be something like Scheme, Forth, or even SML. It so happens that the C standard (which is nearly 1k pages long now

C is far from simple, a simple language would be something like Scheme, Forth, or even SML. It so happens that the C standard (which is nearly 1k pages long nowadays) hides a lot of pitfalls, making the job of optimisers, implementators, and regular programmers miserable.

fooker 8y ago
Generating performant code from Scheme, Forth or SML is far more difficult compared to the C family of languages.
- AnaniasAnanas 8y ago
  Are you sure about that? Forth is famous for being extremely fast. As for SML, assuming a variant with manual memory management (which I do not consider to add complexity in C), I can't think of any reason on why it would be more difficult to optimise.
  - boomlinde 8y ago
    > Forth is famous for being extremely fast. Have you seen that claim backed up by any evidence produced within the last 25 years?
  - fooker 8y ago
    > I can't think of any reason on why it would be more difficult to optimise. https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/faster/ghc-gpp.html https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/... The main reason a language like SML or Haskell is difficult to optimize is because it is incredibly difficult to canonicalize for the purpose of making peephole optimizations and abstract interpretation effective. https://sunfishcode.github.io/blog/2018/10/22/Canonicalization.html https://sunfishcode.github.io/blog/2018/10/22/Canonicalizati...