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I don't really get this C Standard infatuation all of a sudden ... do what works for you. However, from the listing of languages used at their firm ... I would

• IgorPartola 16y ago
  One case I can make for understanding C without using it is that many (most?) language implementations are written in C. CPython is written in C. PHP is written in C. JavaScript is written in C. Thus understanding what id(my_obj) does in CPython may be important. It allows you to reason about what is fast and what is slow. But you are right. The original article talked about understanding pointers, not the language and how that got transformed into understanding the language and how that intimidates people. You don't need to know the C syntax to understand pointers. Some programmers probably don't understand them now, and are able to get the job done, but there is nothing inherently difficult about them. OTOH, after I learned what pointers were (funny enough from Straustup's book on C++), I have seen some really confusing ways to explain them. Instead, just talk about registers and memory, no drawing random boxes and pointing to the box or the number in the box.