Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

C, The Beautiful Language

tenaciousc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 85 posts

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#31

Post by trustfundbaby »

TillE wrote: post #6

> we watch Ronaldo doing things on the pitch Hmmm... Lionel Messi does crazy things you never thought were possible. He's Lisp. Gareth Bale has few fancy tricks, but does what he does very well, and often relies on pure speed - C. Joey Barton is good, but has a bad reputation and a sordid history - Fortran? Etc :-)

You know your soccer my friend ... but you left out Java.

I'd say that's like Miroslav Klose ... big, strong, not particularly fast or lovely to watch but damned good at putting away goals when it matters. surprisingly so.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#32

Post by j_baker »

While we're making silly analogies, let me make one of my own. C is a bit like a horse. It's fun to ride a horse from time to time, and there are still plenty of valid, practical reasons to ride horses. However, you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to talk me into giving up my car (well, ok... my public transportation) for a horse.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#33

Post by rtaycher »

Groxx wrote: post #4

> In other languages, the abstractions and sweet (if helpful) syntactic sugar that attend the code conceal the heartbeat. IMO, that means they're failed abstractions and syntactic sugar. Proper ones should result in better understanding due to simplification - you can learn it in levels, easily encapsulating the knowledge at each level so you know you can "trust" what it's doing without having to remember all of it.

I always thought that part of the reason that c sometime fosters a feeling that "syntatic sugar" is because it doesn't haven nearly as much ability to abstract things as other languages. Although this can be useful to some people in that things may be less context sensitive and more straightforward.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#34

Post by j_baker »

Groxx wrote: post #4

> In other languages, the abstractions and sweet (if helpful) syntactic sugar that attend the code conceal the heartbeat. IMO, that means they're failed abstractions and syntactic sugar. Proper ones should result in better understanding due to simplification - you can learn it in levels, easily encapsulating the knowledge at each level so you know you can "trust" what it's doing without having to remember all of it.

Yeah, code without abstraction is good and works on a small scale. But on a bigger scale, it leads to not being able to see the forest for the trees. I want to be able to see the big picture while being able to dig up the smaller pictures if I have to.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#35

Post by KirinDave »

These rhythms reflect a greater underlying symmetry. All languages have them, and some of them reflect these symmetries more easily than others.

When you start to get familiar enough with a language that you see past it to the underlying structure, that's when you really start to appreciate a language. This process is not unique to C, or any other language.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#36

Post by burgerbrain »

j_baker wrote: post #32

While we're making silly analogies, let me make one of my own. C is a bit like a horse. It's fun to ride a horse from time to time, and there are still plenty of valid, practical reasons to ride horses. However, you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to talk me into giving up my car (well, ok... my public transportation) for a horse.

C is more like trucks or trains than horses. Backbone of the modern society, but using them for all, or even just day to day, transportation needs could be called misguided.

Fortran is more horsey.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#38

Post by burgerbrain »

paulsmith wrote: post #13
angusgr wrote: post #9

This is a nicely written tribute, but there are two generalisations that I feel are worth pointing out. Many parts of Linux kernel are really, really nice C code. Sadly, in my experience most C code is not especially nice. I don't know how this extends to the football metaphor, but certainly I wish most of the C code I have encountered (not to mention written) in my career to date was one tenth as neat. On balance, I…

What are some specific examples of beautiful C code in your view? Asking for a friend.

The Busybox project.

Re: C, The Beautiful Language

#39

Post by sid0 »

This sort of idiocy is what holds computer science back. C, because of how close to the metal it is, is pretty much the ugliest language in wide use, and the fact that we know a lot more about programming languages and user interfaces now than when C was designed doesn't help. It should only be used as a last resort, when you really need the speed, and even then one should keep an eye out for alternatives.
Post reply on HN