Re: OT: Language War (Re: "C" Manual)

[Phil Beder <phil@mail.brainlink.com>]

Thank you!!

The diversity of point of view and depth of knowledge of the participants
of this group is truly phenomenal.  A simple question (in essence "where
should I start") yielded me not only an interesting variety of response to
that question, but a road map, complete with pitfalls and milestones and a
vision of where I should end-up.  

Questions I would have never though to ask were answered, as the ping pong
ball of opinion flew around.  Why use a low level language like "C" for GUI
applications -vs.- why not when one language will do the trick.  The
benefits of being able to allocate and access memory locations directly.
Old standards -vs.- ANSI 99. Types, Classes,  Portablilty!!   . . .  WOW

I understand now why "C" was creating such a stir back in 1989 when I first
started into programming.  It's abilities both as a low level and high
level language are, I believe, what make it so universally accepted.  With
"C" a programmer enjoys the flexibility to write a function many different
ways, which means I don't think I would look forward to maintaining "C"
code written by a bunch of programmers with diverse views (but I guess I
sure would learn a lot).  

Thanks for your help, . . . all of you.  I'll be sure to avoid the rest of
Herb Schildts books (I got a small inexpensive programmers reference of "C"
keywords & functions and some common "C++" functions that has comes in
handy for figuring-out usage and syntax).  After what you guys said, I?ll
bet his ears are ringing.  I haven't found the Kernighan and Ritchie book
in my local bookstore. I have been using a "C for Linux" book which seems
to get right to the point and I appreciate the direct application to Linux
and the gcc compiler.

I wish I was a good enough programmer to contribute to this great project.
Maybe one day when I understand more about Linux I could write a more user
friendly help interface with clear syntax, option, and flag usage.

Thanks again