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I haven't noticed as much C-bashing. It always seemed to me that people recognize that C programming is pretty damn hardcore, and that the people who have mast
by geebee 19y ago
I haven't noticed as much C-bashing. It always seemed to me that people recognize that C programming is pretty damn hardcore, and that the people who have mastered it are accomplished programmers. I still see quite a bit of reverence for kernel programmers. Yeah, there's some C bashing, everything gets bashed. But Java has taken much more of a beating lately than C.
Otherwise, I largely agree with the article (although I don't actually think C particularly needs defending right now). The only point I disagree with in this article is the exclusion of server-side web applications when he says "show me the code." Server side web apps aren't the dull, stateless things they used to be - trememdous innovation is taking place here.
- cstejerean 19y agoOne of the big reasons a lot of code is written in C is because a lot of schools, especially in Europe and Asia teach C/C++ starting at the high school level. Even US schools used to do this until recently (a lot have switched to Java now). So it makes sense that a large percent of the open source software is written in C/C++.
- michaelneale 19y agoBy "school" you mean College or University I presume? (which is what most of the english speaking world calls them). Otherwise highschools are far more advanced in the US then I am led to believe ;)
- cstejerean 19y agoDon't be fooled, high schools int he US are pretty terrible in general. Most of the math and science I covered in high school in the US I learned through 8th grade in Romania. But the AP level courses are great. The high school I attended taught C++ as the AP course (switched to Java the year after I took the course).
- rms 19y agoMy relatively well-off public high school had an elective year long programming sequence that was half Pascal and the second half C++. Then, AP Computer Science was taught in C++. Right after I graduated, AP Computer Science switched to Java and my school started teaching C++ as the first programming language, then Java, then Java again for AP CS.
- michaelneale 19y agoWow, that is impressive. Although, when I went to high school there was no Java (barely was C++, actually there was but no one really used it yet as it was a wacky pre processor for C). Pascal baby ! Interesting how pascal kind of quietly disappeared. It has the closest resemblence to the algol heritage that it came from.
- rms 19y agoYeah... hopefully there will eventually be a pedagogical movement to switch to python as a first language, C++ is definitely a little rough.
- michaelneale 19y agoI agree. Python certainly has its quirks. But what I like about it is that it doesn't force OO or functional styles. You can "ease" into them. I like writing non OO python. Also with the significant whitespace, its great for teaching as it makes the code clear without syntactic noise. the only thing I find confusing is forgetting that there may be a global function to do what I want. eg len(array) as opposed to list.length (ruby). But that probably doesn't hurt in reality at all. The few books I have read on python are also excellent and approachable. Also you can do fun stuff with python (build GUIs etc) and do tangible stuff that makes teaching it more fun.
- Goladus 19y agoI used Pascal in high school, which was over 10 years ago. We did searching and sorting algorithms, linked lists, queues, and some other stuff I don't remember too well. Then I did it all again in college because they didn't accept AP credit unless you specifically complained and demanded to skip the introductory class. (Which wasn't a 6.001 equivalent)