7 ms·

This is some of the cleanest, modern looking, beautiful C code I've seen in a while. I know it's not the kernel, and there's probably good reasons for lots of #

This is some of the cleanest, modern looking, beautiful C code I've seen in a while. I know it's not the kernel, and there's probably good reasons for lots of #ifdef conditionals, random underscored types, etc in bigger projects, but this is actually a great learning piece to teach folks the beauty of C. I've also never seen tests written this way in C. Great work. C was the first programming language I learned when I was still in middle/high school, raising the family PC out of the grave by installing free software - which I learned was mostly built in C. I never had many options for coursework in compsci until I was in college, where we did data structures and algorithms in C++, so I had a leg up as I'd already understood pointers. :-) Happy to see C appreciated for what it is, a very clean and nice/simple language if you stay away from some of the nuts and bolts. Of course, the accessibility of the underlying nuts and bolts is one of the reasons for using C, so there's a balance.

ashtonjamesd 1y ago
Wow! That really means a lot because I always make a lot of effort to make sure my code is just that :) Appreciate you saying that!
- jacquesm 1y ago
  You've done a couple of things right: very few dependencies, simple, easy to understand code. C gets hairy when you try to be clever. I'm busy writing some of the most optimized-but-still-portable code that I've ever written and it is very interesting to see how even a slight difference in how you express something can cause a massive difference in execution speed (especially, obviously, in inner loops). Your code is clearly written from what your comfort zone with C is and I'm really impressed by the restraint on display. At the same time, some of the code feels a bit repetitive and would benefit from more universal mechanisms. But that would require more effort and I'm not even sure if that is productive. One part where I see this is in the argument parsing code as well as in the way you handle strings, it is all coded very explicitly, which substantially increases the chance of making a mistake. Another limitation is that using AI to help you write the code means you don't actually understand what it does, and this in turn may expose you to side effects that you are not able to eliminate because you did not consider them while writing, it is as if someone else gave you that code and asked you to trust them they did not make any mistakes.
citizenpaul 1y ago
> I'd already understood pointers. Ok I hear this all the time. Are pointers really that hard for so many people to understand? I'm not trying to brag it took me I think like 15 minutes to grok them from learning about them the first time. I'm sure it took me longer to be proficient but I don't get this legendary difficulty aura that seems to surround their existance. Also yes nice project. Job app complete projected archived and abandoned in 3...2..1... :). I hope not.
- copperx 1y ago
  The concept is straightforward. The syntax isn't. That's why cdecl.org exists.
  - citizenpaul 1y ago
    C gibberish to English gave me a chuckle thanks.
- assimpleaspossi 1y ago
  Same here about pointers. Perhaps it's cause I started life as an electronic engineer and understood memory addressing from the chip level but I, too, don't understand the struggle others seem to have.
  - citizenpaul 1y ago
    I started in networking so there were a lot of memory/bit-logic/binary concepts piled on early maybe that is the case.
- noufalibrahim 1y ago
  It's a rabbithole. Pointer to array of structures that have pointer fields. Array of pointers to structures etc. You pass them around and trip over the passing semantics, uninitialised pointers etc etc.
  - citizenpaul 1y ago
deleted 1y ago
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ashtonjamesd 1y ago

Wow! That really means a lot because I always make a lot of effort to make sure my code is just that :) Appreciate you saying that!

jacquesm 1y ago
You've done a couple of things right: very few dependencies, simple, easy to understand code. C gets hairy when you try to be clever. I'm busy writing some of the most optimized-but-still-portable code that I've ever written and it is very interesting to see how even a slight difference in how you express something can cause a massive difference in execution speed (especially, obviously, in inner loops). Your code is clearly written from what your comfort zone with C is and I'm really impressed by the restraint on display. At the same time, some of the code feels a bit repetitive and would benefit from more universal mechanisms. But that would require more effort and I'm not even sure if that is productive. One part where I see this is in the argument parsing code as well as in the way you handle strings, it is all coded very explicitly, which substantially increases the chance of making a mistake. Another limitation is that using AI to help you write the code means you don't actually understand what it does, and this in turn may expose you to side effects that you are not able to eliminate because you did not consider them while writing, it is as if someone else gave you that code and asked you to trust them they did not make any mistakes.

citizenpaul 1y ago

> I'd already understood pointers. Ok I hear this all the time. Are pointers really that hard for so many people to understand? I'm not trying to brag it took me I think like 15 minutes to grok them from learning about them the first time. I'm sure it took me longer to be proficient but I don't get this legendary difficulty aura that seems to surround their existance. Also yes nice project. Job app complete projected archived and abandoned in 3...2..1... :). I hope not.

copperx 1y ago
The concept is straightforward. The syntax isn't. That's why cdecl.org exists.
- citizenpaul 1y ago
  C gibberish to English gave me a chuckle thanks.
assimpleaspossi 1y ago
Same here about pointers. Perhaps it's cause I started life as an electronic engineer and understood memory addressing from the chip level but I, too, don't understand the struggle others seem to have.
- citizenpaul 1y ago
  I started in networking so there were a lot of memory/bit-logic/binary concepts piled on early maybe that is the case.
noufalibrahim 1y ago
It's a rabbithole. Pointer to array of structures that have pointer fields. Array of pointers to structures etc. You pass them around and trip over the passing semantics, uninitialised pointers etc etc.
- citizenpaul 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

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