4 ms·

C is a high-level assembly for PDP-11

• bcrl 2y ago
  This is a comment I've seen a number of times, but I really don't agree with. All C is constrained by the compiler that you are using, and there is no way to ensure code written today will work exactly as expected 20 years down the road. The only thing constant in the tech industry is that change is omnipresent, and using computers means adapting to that constant change.
  • nivertech 2y ago
    C pointer arithmetics is a copy-cat of the PDP-11 Assembler’s addressing modes[1] So it was either inspired or designed for PDP-11, making it cross-platform was afterthought. It wasn’t designed from the first principles, and it’s unable to express different, newer, and/or more advanced low-level features. > there is no way to ensure code written today will work exactly as expected 20 years down the road It’s possible with a language where you specify computations in a declarative way, instead of using increments/decrements, pointer arithmetics, branching and loops. —- 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)#New_B_and_first_C_release https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)#New...