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A Boggling Return to C

thraxil.org

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Re: A Boggling Return to C

#12

Post by galactus »

The author implements an inneficient algorithm using python and then a better one using C. He seems to feel python is for dirty brute force and C is for "real" programming...

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#13

Post by dbaupp »

KonradKlause wrote: post #5
andrewcooke wrote: post #2

maybe the biggest improvement in c programming over the last decade is valgrind, making purify-like debugging available to everyone. it's completely removed a whole class of annoyingly hard to fix bugs from my code.

valgrind, is only available for a few platforms/architectures. If you are unable to writer proper C programs without valgrind's help, please go home. :-)

One can always write proper C programs without Valgrind: it is "just" a (really useful) debugging tool. The utility of it is that instead of spending days trying to track down any mallocs missing frees, one can just run Valgrind to find them and their locations straight away.

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#15

Post by ralfd »

yason wrote: post #4

I started with assembly language and I thought C was heaven. Of course, there are easier languages, there are more powerful languages, there are fancier languages and whatnot. I like Python and I adore Lisp. But I still love C most. C is the sweet spot where I can extend my programs to do high-level stuff while still keep my hands down on the actual hardware I'm programming. I like that a lot, probably because I grew…

Nice try Mr. Daniel J. Bernstein.

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#16

Post by pjmlp »

andrewcooke wrote: post #2

maybe the biggest improvement in c programming over the last decade is valgrind, making purify-like debugging available to everyone. it's completely removed a whole class of annoyingly hard to fix bugs from my code.

Tools only created to solve the lack of safe constructs in C.

C made lots of sense in the context it was developed, but the world would be better if we had safer systems programming languages.

Valgrind, purify and friends are required to C, the same way Java requires IDEs, to improve language usability.

Have said this, the new trend in having static analysis tools integrated in the development process, like Clang, Eclipse CODA, Visual Studio's tools or HP Code Advisor, among others, can bring a bit more safety into C.

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#17

Post by fferen »

It's funny, because I recently tackled this exact same problem in Python as well. And guess what my first step was? Writing a prefix tree implementation, in order to use the exact same approach the author took in C. It never seriously occurred to me to do it any other way. It may be because I recently got into C as well after spending years with only Python, but honestly I think I would have done the same thing before that; that's just how I think. So I don't believe it's the language that dictates how much you think about efficiency, it's the programmer.

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#18

Post by robryan »

fferen wrote: post #17

It's funny, because I recently tackled this exact same problem in Python as well. And guess what my first step was? Writing a prefix tree implementation, in order to use the exact same approach the author took in C. It never seriously occurred to me to do it any other way. It may be because I recently got into C as well after spending years with only Python, but honestly I think I would have done the same thing befor…

Providing you are aware of prefix trees. I guess you could come up with the idea independently but I would assume a lot of people when presented with the problem wouldn't.

Re: A Boggling Return to C

#19

Post by popee »

amouat wrote: post #7
KonradKlause wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

valgrind, is only available for a few platforms/architectures. If you are unable to writer proper C programs without valgrind's help, please go home. :-)

Depends what you mean by "proper". Any fool can get a C program to work, but ensuring there are no memory leaks etc is very hard without a tool like Valgrind. If you don't believe me, just run Valgrind on random sampling of C programs that didn't use such a tool - I reckon it will find issues with most of them.

Agreed. Valgrind can be very helpful, saved me few times. You know huge modular application, one line bug, dead end situation. Too bad output is mess, ups, full of details :-)
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