4 ms·

I'm surprised that people consider C a dead language. C is very much one of the most used and needed language in the world, especially if the Internet of Thing

by tux3 12y ago

I'm surprised that people consider C a dead language. C is very much one of the most used and needed language in the world, especially if the Internet of Things hype keeps on getting stronger. And of course all the current billions of lines of C didn't just disappear to be replaced by Python ( as much as I like Python). Your OS and core programs are still getting new versions from times to times, even if you don't directly see the source code. Or maybe C is being replaced by some other language that I'm not seeing.

moron4hire 12y ago
I understand what you're saying, but I wouldn't say it's all that surprising that people think that way. Annoying, but not surprising. People also think the mobile web will kill desktops and laptops and that there is no use for native applications.
kyllo 12y ago
C was supposed to be replaced by C++ a long time ago, but a lot of systems programmers, particularly in open source, have reverted back to vanilla C because C++ is too complicated or provides abstractions that are not needed for the problem. But on the Windows platform C++ has mostly replaced C, and on the Mac / OSX platform Objective-C has basically replaced C. There are a few other newer systems programming languages like D, Go, and Nim, but these all have garbage collection and so are unsuitable for many of the use cases for C/C++. I understand D and Nim allow you to turn GC off, but then you also lose memory safety so it's equivalent to using C++ from that perspective. I believe Rust is the most promising new systems programming language because its compiler enforces memory safety without garbage collection. But it's just recently hit 1.0 so it may be a while before it becomes very widely adopted.
- marrs 12y ago
  But it's just recently hit 1.0 As an alpha only. It's still much too unstable to be able to do anything serious with it.
  - duaneb 12y ago
    > As an alpha only. It's still much too unstable to be able to do anything serious with it. No, it's powerful today. I'm writing 'serious' code with it. Just don't write production code with it because your code will have to do a LOT of maintenance to keep up with HEAD.
    - kyllo 12y ago
      Yehuda Katz uses it for production code for skylight.io, he's also a core Rust contributor though.
      - kibwen 12y ago
        Yehuda was invited to be a core team member because of his use of Rust in skylight.io, not the other way around. At this point, anyone who's seriously using Rust as a fundamental component of their company is probably eligible for core team membership. :P
    - dbaupp 12y ago
      marrs is correct, about the label: we call the current Rust release 1.0.0-alpha2. 1.0.0-beta will be coming out soon and the true 1.0.0 after that. http://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/02/13/Final-1.0-timeline.html http://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/02/13/Final-1.0-timeline.html
    - marrs 12y ago
      Perhaps I should have been clearer: don't do anything serious with it if you have a deadline to meet.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
duaneb 12y ago
C isn't dead. However, it serves two niche roles—glue code and super portable system code. It's dead in the sense that it's not growing—the unique use cases of it are forever shrinking.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  By glue code you mean things like most common Foreign Interface semantics ?
  - duaneb 12y ago
    Not just that, but also plugin and embedded APIs are typically C-oriented.
- throwaway283719 12y ago
  It is also useful for rewriting routines in the critical path for slower, but more productive languages. Particularly languages that need to do a lot of heavy-duty data crunching (think Python, R, Matlab, Octave). I mean, I guess you could do that in C++ instead. But why would you bother if C is good enough (and it typically is for most numerical algorithms).
bloaf 12y ago
C was compared to Voldemort, and Harry to Python. If I am recalling my Harry Potter correctly: Upon revealing that Harry would receive a wand that was a counterpart to Voldemort's: "...I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter. After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."

by tux3 12y ago

moron4hire 12y ago

I understand what you're saying, but I wouldn't say it's all that surprising that people think that way. Annoying, but not surprising. People also think the mobile web will kill desktops and laptops and that there is no use for native applications.

kyllo 12y ago

C was supposed to be replaced by C++ a long time ago, but a lot of systems programmers, particularly in open source, have reverted back to vanilla C because C++ is too complicated or provides abstractions that are not needed for the problem. But on the Windows platform C++ has mostly replaced C, and on the Mac / OSX platform Objective-C has basically replaced C. There are a few other newer systems programming languages like D, Go, and Nim, but these all have garbage collection and so are unsuitable for many of the use cases for C/C++. I understand D and Nim allow you to turn GC off, but then you also lose memory safety so it's equivalent to using C++ from that perspective. I believe Rust is the most promising new systems programming language because its compiler enforces memory safety without garbage collection. But it's just recently hit 1.0 so it may be a while before it becomes very widely adopted.

marrs 12y ago
But it's just recently hit 1.0 As an alpha only. It's still much too unstable to be able to do anything serious with it.
- duaneb 12y ago
  > As an alpha only. It's still much too unstable to be able to do anything serious with it. No, it's powerful today. I'm writing 'serious' code with it. Just don't write production code with it because your code will have to do a LOT of maintenance to keep up with HEAD.
  - kyllo 12y ago
    Yehuda Katz uses it for production code for skylight.io, he's also a core Rust contributor though.
    - kibwen 12y ago
      Yehuda was invited to be a core team member because of his use of Rust in skylight.io, not the other way around. At this point, anyone who's seriously using Rust as a fundamental component of their company is probably eligible for core team membership. :P
  - dbaupp 12y ago
    marrs is correct, about the label: we call the current Rust release 1.0.0-alpha2. 1.0.0-beta will be coming out soon and the true 1.0.0 after that. http://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/02/13/Final-1.0-timeline.html http://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/02/13/Final-1.0-timeline.html
  - marrs 12y ago
    Perhaps I should have been clearer: don't do anything serious with it if you have a deadline to meet.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

duaneb 12y ago

C isn't dead. However, it serves two niche roles—glue code and super portable system code. It's dead in the sense that it's not growing—the unique use cases of it are forever shrinking.

agumonkey 12y ago
By glue code you mean things like most common Foreign Interface semantics ?
- duaneb 12y ago
  Not just that, but also plugin and embedded APIs are typically C-oriented.
throwaway283719 12y ago
It is also useful for rewriting routines in the critical path for slower, but more productive languages. Particularly languages that need to do a lot of heavy-duty data crunching (think Python, R, Matlab, Octave). I mean, I guess you could do that in C++ instead. But why would you bother if C is good enough (and it typically is for most numerical algorithms).

bloaf 12y ago

C was compared to Voldemort, and Harry to Python. If I am recalling my Harry Potter correctly: Upon revealing that Harry would receive a wand that was a counterpart to Voldemort's: "...I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter. After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."