3 ms·
As C approaches its 50th anniversary in 2023, people are still trying to improve it. First it was data abstraction C++, ObjectiveC, Java. You could sort of hack
by peter303 4y ago
As C approaches its 50th anniversary in 2023, people are still trying to improve it. First it was data abstraction C++, ObjectiveC, Java. You could sort of hack that in original C with structures and virtuals. Now is back to improving basic C itself.
- einpoklum 4y agoNeither C++ nor Java were "attempts to improve C". It's true that C++ is almost a superset of C, but most C programming idioms would be discouraged in C++. As for Java - it's a whole different kettle of fish. Intended to run on a virtual machine with opaque high-level abstractions usable by your program; nothing like C. (I don't know ObjectiveC enough to comment.)
- webmobdev 4y agoI am surprised D isn't mentioned here. It seems to have found the right balance between C and Python / C++ ( https://dlang.org/ https://dlang.org/ ) and is also mature. I've been exploring some "lower level" language alternatives to C, and find that D, Ada and Pascal (FPC / Lazarus) hold more appeal to me than many of these new languages.
- Tozen 4y agoThe Pascal/Object Pascal story is quite interesting. It goes to show how important corporate backing and luck are to the popularity of programming languages.
- webmobdev 4y agoIndeed. Check out its successor Oberon by the same creator. It's modern, simple and powerful. The whole language definition is just 17 pages - https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Oberon/Oberon07.Report.pdf https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Oberon/Oberon07.Report.pdf ... and yet, no PR behind it, so it is nowhere near the popularity of even the fading Pascal.