C meeting is over. C23 added: • Hacker News Board

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#11

Post by bsder » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 8:41 AM UTC

sam_bristow wrote: post #4

jonp888 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many many people out there using C for embedded software.

The problem is that embedded compilers are not known for keeping up with the standards. The only hope is that the moves to GCC and Clang continue.

gcc (thankfully) is the default (you download gcc compiled for ARM directly from ARM itself) for ARM embedded so when gcc gets it, ARM gets it.

So, presumably, RISC-V will also get it at the same time.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#12

Post by brian_cloutier » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 8:47 AM UTC

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

At a previous employer of mine we would have happily switched to c23. Postgres is written in c and if you want to write an extension for Postgres you're going to have the easiest time if your extension is also written in c. However, there's no reason not to use the newest c version.

So, c is not just for legacy code.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#13

Post by gefhfffh » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 8:52 AM UTC

CyberRabbi wrote: post #9

Whenever I use C I use it for the express purpose of supporting ancient platforms. These platforms often only support C89, so that’s the dialect of C to which I restrict myself. If I am able to ignore those old platforms, I use C++. RAII is just so convenient.

Have you evaluated Rust instead of C++?

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#14

Post by mkl95 » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:04 AM UTC

jonp888 wrote: post #3

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

There are many many people out there using C for embedded software.

There are tons of CPython users AKA Python's default implementation... the software world is full of high level abstractions built on top of C.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#15

Post by kstenerud » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:10 AM UTC

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

I will.

C is everywhere and is not going away (it's #2 on TIOBE and on the rise again). Now that fewer people are learning it, I get more juicy contracts.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#16

Post by aardvark179 » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:13 AM UTC

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

Huge amounts of software are “legacy” but built with perfectly modern tool chains and will support c23 just fine. Even for large bits of software which have been mostly rewritten you’ll often find core libraries that are still actively developed but have never been ported away from C.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#17

Post by sgt » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:21 AM UTC

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

Sounds like you're not really in touch with the real word. C has many benefits and it is super practical. Yes, you can write unsafe code, but safety isn't always your #1 priority. There are also tools you can use to identify issues, which will mitigate risks.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#18

Post by rwmj » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:23 AM UTC

So true and false keywords are the only thing that has been added, or am I missing a part of this thread?

Edit: I think one of these could be a better link: https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/23 http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2864.pdf

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#19

Post by rwmj » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:24 AM UTC

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

Many things on a Linux system is written in C, and despite the noise on HN, developers who gets stuff done are constantly writing new code in C all the time.

Re: C meeting is over. C23 added:

#20

Post by reassembled » Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 9:26 AM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #15

mungoman2 wrote: post #2

I can't tell if this is serious. Surely if you're still using C now it's for legacy reasons. And if using it for legacy reasons you are likely stuck using an old C standard. So who will use C23?

I will. C is everywhere and is not going away (it's #2 on TIOBE and on the rise again). Now that fewer people are learning it, I get more juicy contracts.

I feel like there’s actually a growing subculture of C programmers of late, seemingly spawned by Casey Muratori’s Handmade Hero series, Zed Shaw’s “Learn C The Hard” way and other more recent popularizations of C and low level programming ideas. There’s a whole “Handmade” software scene growing up, seemingly as a reaction against the bloat and over engineering of more recent software trends like Electron and web apps. Just the other day I stumbled across a vibrant Discord group focused on a fairly new but surprisingly feature complete game engine called Gunslinger, written entirely in C99. I’ve been working on my own C-based game engine for awhile too after having been exposed to the ideas of Handmade Hero, as well as from the influence of a good friend who has been writing games in C for many years. He’s now working on an application called Pixel CNC for generating 3D tool paths from 2D images.