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Actually it is very reasonable to choose the right language for the job, especially for tasks that are not performance-critical. When you are writing and debug
by makecheck 5y ago
Actually it is very reasonable to choose the right language for the job, especially for tasks that are not performance-critical.
When you are writing and debugging something new, you don’t want it to take forever to get it into a correct state. When you are maintaining things, you want readable code. And in an open-source project, you might attract more maintainers if you have code that is more accessible (e.g. simple things appear as simple as they are because they’re scripts, and people familiar with those languages can help even if they are not C programmers). It is also more likely to work cross-platform.
I can imagine a lot of things that would be a very simple few lines of script but a mess to write, debug and read in C code. This is especially true if you could have (say) relied on a robust, debugged Python standard library function that has existed for years but instead had to do all of that yourself in C “because the project should only be using C”?
- svnpenn 5y agoThe Git project has had at least one full time paid employee (Junio), for over 10 years. In my mind, it's not acceptable that what I'm asking hasn't been done yet. Also, shell is about the worst possible language you could use for a large project. If you want to see for yourself, look at the code for git-bisect. Global state spread across like 5 random shell scripts.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sigjuice 5y agoRight, how dare that one paid employee not anticipate and address demands from 10 years in the future.
- CRConrad 5y ago> ...but a mess to write, debug and read in C code. This is especially true if you could have (say) relied on a robust, debugged Python standard library function that has existed for years but instead had to do all of that yourself in C... Because there are no robust, debugged standard library functions that have existed for years in C?
- huntie 5y agoWhen did C add standard library functions for Vecs and HashMaps? You're putting words in his mouth, no one claimed C lacked "robust, debugged standard library functions". It's no secret that the C standard library lacks implementations of a variety of things that programmers use on a daily basis.