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I suppose this is an evergreen topic for new C programmers. I find it surprising that HN is posting something that's basically a verbatim quote from K&R which w
by guyzero 15y ago
I suppose this is an evergreen topic for new C programmers. I find it surprising that HN is posting something that's basically a verbatim quote from K&R which was first published in 1978. a 33 year-old C hack ain't news.
Than again, I guess the days where you could assume everyone who knew how to program programmed in C are long gone.
- pyre 15y agoYou're also assuming that everyone that knows how to program in C has read K&R. That's like assuming that everyone that knows how to program has read the Art of Computer Programming.
- comatose_kid 15y agoInteresting comparison! Let's take a look: TAOCP Vol 1 Amazon rank: 364,370. K&R C Amazon rank: 2307 Based on the above, and also that C programmers are a subset of everyone that knows how to program, it seems that the two ratios would be off by a few orders of magnitude. So I don't think this comparison is really correct. I'll add to this my anecdotal experience that about half of the people I have worked with who call themselves C programmers have read K&R.
- guyzero 15y agoI learned C from Kochan (1st Ed) so it is indeed fair to say that it's a big assumption that every C programmer has read K&R, even for us grognards.
- mkelly 15y agoI agree. I posted a crazy rant elsewhere in the comments, actually, prompted by the same thoughts. Poor HN.
- Natsu 15y agoIt would be familiar to anyone who has read IOCCC submissions or K&R, I should think. But it's quite surprising for just about everyone else, I think. Does any other language allow this? I think JavaScript allows some syntactic contortions, but I don't remember offhand if it permits this particular one.
- guyzero 15y agoEvery language has idiosyncrasies. IMO it's tough to use a language effectively without knowing them, even if you don't use them. I mean, imagine trying to use Ruby and not knowing about implicit return values. Or the obscure array slice operations in Python. Every language has its own funky things.