[Courses] [C] Next C topic: Your Choice

[James]

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Julie wrote:

> REMOVED wrote:
> > 
> > In regards to C, (my wife has subscribed to this topic, but I just happened
> > to see it), forget C, it is a barabaric language that only serves the
> > function of being a universal assembler language.  Try to learn something
> > that will be useful in the future instead.
> 
> People have been saying that about C for the 20 years I've
> been using the language.
> 
> If you don't like it, don't use it.
> 
> On the other hand, if you come to work in my department, expect
> to know C and use C.  We used it 10 years ago and we'll be using
> it in another 10 years.  If I have my way ;-)

As someone once said about democracy...

"C is the worst possible language. Except for all the others..."

I must admit I didn't like it when I first met it (at Oxford* in 1997, 
IIRC) - next to the other languages I'd used, it seemed pretty obfuscated: 
all those {}, no built in lists or hashtables (like Perl has)... Once I'd 
been using C for a while, though, I started to appreciate why it still 
rules the scene: just try writing an OS in Java/Perl/Python!

(I always used to dislike Java for its lack of performance, and the 
absence of non-blocking/async I/O - until I wrote my own single-threaded 
Java WWW server, and found it outperformed Zeus. Anyone know any good 
recipes for 'hat'?!)


James.

* - no, I didn't do my degree there - it was just a one week programming 
course to learn the basics of C, using a roomfull of Indys at the 
Engineering Dept.