Re: OT: Why is C so popular?
On Wed, 2003-08-27 at 01:11, Alex Malinovich wrote:
> The recent COBOL discussion has gotten me to thinking. Some languages
> seem to be very popular in some situations. C is easily the dominant
> language for most things Linux. So therein lies the question. Why,
> exactly, is C so popular? Especially in comparison to C++. I can't think
> of a single reason to use C instead of C++ for most of the coding that I
> would do. I generally only write user applications. I don't get anywhere
> near the kernel which is where I'd imagine most of the reason for using
> C comes in. Yet I see people writing 'modern' GUI applications and using
> C when I would think C++ would be a much better choice. Is there
> something that I'm missing? Something that C actually does better than
> C++ in regards to higher-level functions?
>
> (Note that I tend to gravitate towards higher level languages by nature.
> I use Perl religiously, and I love Java. If not for some of the speed
> limitations and, more importantly, the fact that it's non-free, I would
> say that Java is the perfect language. Hmm... is that gasoline I smell?
- Habit
- Tradition
- Availability
1 - If most people know C, then most apps will be written in C,
out of sheer momentum.
2 - C is The Language Of Unix, Unix is Great, We Use Unix, there-
fore We Write In C. (The fact that for a long time, cc came as
part of Unix played a part in this. Why spend Big Bucks for a
Fortran or COBOL compiler, when C is "free as in beer"?) This
attitude is diminishing, now that so many other free languages are
available for *ix.
3 - "I learned C in college, and C lets me write in 1 long line
that which takes 3 easy-to-read lines in Fortran. Thus, C is great,
and all other languages suck!". Fortunately, this attitude is also
diminishing. Unfortunately, nowadays "s/C /Perl /".
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect
liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born
to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their
liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty
lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but
without understanding."
Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v US (1928)
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