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I wonder why does the author refer to C programmers as 'hippies'? I sometimes use C, and I have been called a hippie, but I have never been called a hippie beca
by nowarninglabel 16y ago
I wonder why does the author refer to C programmers as 'hippies'? I sometimes use C, and I have been called a hippie, but I have never been called a hippie because I use C. But perhaps I am not hip to where this originates.
- kaffiene 16y agoIt's ironic since (as someone who was a C programmer for ages) we used to be seen as the uncultured pragmatists. Yeah, C is kinda crude but it's fast. When did that get turned into Hippydom? I'da thought all those dynamic languages were more hippyish with their (almost)anything-goes approach.
- cturner 16y ago> I sometimes use C Ah - but - had you entered this, would you have choosen to use C? My anecdotal experience (Given a problem, and C, I struggle to get things done) is that lots of people like the idea of C, have fond memories of it and occasionally play with code snippets in it. But when those people go into getting-things-done-mode they choose C++ or Java as their primary. But there are some die-hards who think C remains a superior general-purpose lanuage to C++ and Java, who probably don't like OO, and who stick with C. I thought the writer called them hippy to highlight this spirit of contrarianism. If that's true, though, it's a poor choice of word because it doesn't suggest a connection with either tradition or asceticism. 'Monk' would better capture that.