81–90 of 225 posts
I'd consider myself the former: I use C because it's the only viable option for what I'm doing - but most of the time it's nothing to do with C itself, but the various extensions and builtins of GCC. It's the inline asm, the control of registers, placement of code and data, control of inlining, etc, which are missing from all of the C "replacements". The replacements assume you are building a user application on top…
That said, like the author, I'm trying to find an alternative. Well, more like I'm building my alternative because I hate Go. And Rust. And anything else.
I don't know why C fits my brain, but it does. I think it's because my brain is low-level; I like messing with assembler when I get the chance to optimize.
[1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/02/why-i-use-c-when-i-believe-i...
I'm the former kind: I choose C because I like it above all else. [1] That said, like the author, I'm trying to find an alternative. Well, more like I'm building my alternative because I hate Go. And Rust. And anything else. I don't know why C fits my brain, but it does. I think it's because my brain is low-level; I like messing with assembler when I get the chance to optimize. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/02/wh…
Why I love C? In a word, simplicity. A language designed by a single person. I also did program a lot in CLisp, a language designed by committee, with more than 100 different flow control directives(and people often create their own). I loved and love Lisp as a concept and tool, but hated CLisp complex design so badly. I programmed in Arc for a while because of that. I have created my own C compiler and interpreter.…
> In a word, simplicity. For fun, go to /usr/include and try to understand the system .h files.
I think primarily about the kind of machine code I want to generate, and pick a language that best approximates that ideal output code while still allowing the source code to be as clear as possible.
From these constraints I keep coming back to C. Zig is the most appealing contender in terms of next-gen languages.
If I could get safety without giving up anything, of course I would take it. But I am increasingly convinced that this is not generally possible.
Tense is very important with this article. People who chose C. Whatever these reasons were that made someone chose C, that choice may have been made 20 years ago, and the choice may pan out very different if made now. But now you have 20 years of C experience…
I'm the former kind: I choose C because I like it above all else. [1] That said, like the author, I'm trying to find an alternative. Well, more like I'm building my alternative because I hate Go. And Rust. And anything else. I don't know why C fits my brain, but it does. I think it's because my brain is low-level; I like messing with assembler when I get the chance to optimize. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/02/wh…
How do you feel about zig?
What always killed me the most in C was the absolutely anemic standard library. OS’ had more libraries, but still very low level stuff.
I'm the former kind: I choose C because I like it above all else. [1] That said, like the author, I'm trying to find an alternative. Well, more like I'm building my alternative because I hate Go. And Rust. And anything else. I don't know why C fits my brain, but it does. I think it's because my brain is low-level; I like messing with assembler when I get the chance to optimize. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/02/wh…
How do you feel about zig?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> yet they miss that for Plan 9 and Inferno, they also decided to go with automatic memory management languages And which of these three operating systems won?
"Plan 9 failed simply because it fell short of being a compelling enough improvement on Unix to displace its ancestor. Compared to Plan 9, Unix creaks and clanks and has obvious rust spots, but it gets the job done well enough to hold its position. There is a lesson here for ambitious system architects: the most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." Source: https://ww…