Why is C good??? any experts?

[Suresh]

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study
it?
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?

I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

[Chris Dutton]

Suresh wrote:

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study
it?
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?

I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

I think all of your questions boil down to "why choose C over something
else?"

There are two answers.

1. C is sometimes known as "portable assembler". The key concept
represented by this statement is that C is closer to the machine that
most other languages. It's possible to understand exactly what a C
program is doing because there isn't (necessarily) a lot of overhead
going on. You don't have to guess what other information the compiler
is including in order for things like polymorphism to work, and how that
additional information will impact things like memory layout of an
aggregate data structure.

2. C is everywhere. C is about as ubiquitous a language as anyone
could ever hope for. If you want to write a clean, portable, minimal
(few dependencies) program, there are very few systems where it won't
compile and run.

[E. Robert Tisdale]

Suresh wrote:

I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
If it is no longer a choice of programming language,
why people still study it?
New C programmers are required to maintain old C programs.
And also its not an OO language either...
is there any advantages in being not an OO language?
No.
I know one reason is that,
IT started with C and so they are still using them
rather than changing it into new language.

[Jack Klein]

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 01:06:25 GMT, "Suresh" <gs*****@rogers .com> wrote
in comp.lang.c:

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study
it?
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?

I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

Your last statement is complete nonsense. IT started with FORTRAN and
COBOL as the high level languages, and other things like JCL.

--
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
FAQs for
comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
alt.comp.lang.l earn.c-c++
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~a...FAQ-acllc.html

[E. Robert Tisdale]

Chris Dutton wrote:

C is sometimes known as "portable assembler".
The key concept represented by this statement is that
C is closer to the machine that most other languages.
I don't know what that means.
Which "machine" is C "close to"?
Is C "farther" from machines that are not "close to"
the machine that C is "close to".
What sort of topology allows this sort of reasoning?
It's possible to understand exactly what a C program is doing
because there isn't (necessarily) a lot of overhead going on.
People who claim to know "exactly what a C program is doing"
are almost never correct.
You don't have to guess what other information the compiler
is including in order for things like polymorphism to work,
If you need to "guess" at these things,
you don't understand the programming language.
and how that additional information will impact things like
memory layout of an aggregate data structure.

[Kieran Simkin]

You speak like C is an obsolete language. Most of the Linux (or most *n?x)
operating system and the programs that run inside it are written in C not to
mention countless applications that are still in very much active
development.
I don't speak on behalf of the newsgroup here, but I simply don't like
object orientation. I find it obfuscates things in my mind and doesn't
provide many advantages in most non-gui situations. So to answer your
question about object orientation, OO is not necessarily the Way
Forward(tm), it just has some advantages in some situations.
I just started teaching myself C recently and if my reason for using it
would interest you; I'm replacing a lot of old Perl and PHP scripts I wrote
which were performing things that PHP in particular wasn't designed to do,
namely running as daemons and doing a lot of statistical calculations.
Compiled C beats Perl and PHP in speed and reliability hands down on both
these applications (assuming well written PHP/Perl vs. well written C).
Another thing that draws me to C over interpreted languages like Perl and
PHP is that if a program performs oddly, I can usually make the assumption
that it's my code that's broken rather than the language I'm writing it in.
Yes, there have been several occasions on which this hasn't been the case
with PHP.
Maybe this answers your question, I've explained why I like C in preference
to object orientated languages like C++ or Java *spit* and I've explained
why I like C over other procedural languages (if you count PHP and Perl as
programming languages rather than scripting languages).
--
~Kieran Simkin
Digital Crocus
http://digital-crocus.com/

"Suresh" <gs*****@rogers .com> wrote in message
news:lE******** **************@ twister01.bloor .is.net.cable.r ogers.com...

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study it?
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?

I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

[Neil Kurzman]

"E. Robert Tisdale" wrote:

Chris Dutton wrote:

C is sometimes known as "portable assembler".
The key concept represented by this statement is that
C is closer to the machine that most other languages.
I don't know what that means.
Which "machine" is C "close to"?
Is C "farther" from machines that are not "close to"
the machine that C is "close to".
What sort of topology allows this sort of reasoning?

CPUs execute Op-Codes. The CPU does not know about languages.
C gives you more control over what the CPU will get.
..NET and Java... are not under the Programmers control.

It's possible to understand exactly what a C program is doing
because there isn't (necessarily) a lot of overhead going on.
People who claim to know "exactly what a C program is doing"
are almost never correct.

Then do not guess. Look at the .LST file and be sure.

You don't have to guess what other information the compiler
is including in order for things like polymorphism to work,
If you need to "guess" at these things,
you don't understand the programming language.

Then explain Java and VB

and how that additional information will impact things like
memory layout of an aggregate data structure.

C effectively the next step above Assembly.
It gives more control over memory usage and hardware access.
You pay for the control with more responsibility. More code to do the
same task.
And you get to watch for buffer overruns and memory leaks.

[gswork]

"Suresh" <gs*****@rogers .com> wrote in message news:<lE******* *************** @twister01.bloo r.is.net.cable. rogers.com>...

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
Because you can create useful programs using it and...
In what way its better than any other languages?
No overwhelming way, but it is very flexible in allowing a multitude
of approaches and 'styles' of programming, has good facility for
'lower level' systems programming and is widely implemented with an
ISO standard to help programmers who port apps from one platform to
another.
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study
it?
Because it is, still, a choice for many.
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?
Perhaps in the implmentation of compilers, for many it makes C easier
to learn (initially) too.
I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

IT started way before C, but indeed the huge amount of legacy code,
especially in systems code, ensures C's future as much if not more
than any other language characteristic.

[Rob Thorpe]

"Suresh" <gs*****@rogers .com> wrote in message news:<lE******* *************** @twister01.bloo r.is.net.cable. rogers.com>...

Hi,
I am new to C and curious to know some basic questions about C.
Why C is good?
In what way its better than any other languages?
I'm not sure that it is better than any other languages, but it has
certain advantages:

* There are C bindings available for many libraries, probably more
than any other language.
* It is relatively simple. This means that it's not unreasonable to
understand nearly all of the language. Its much harder to reach a
good understanding of a more complex language like C++.
* If you understand the machine you are using its possible to write
quite fast C.
If it is no longer a choice of programming language...why people still study
it?
And also its not an OO language either...is there any advantages in being
not an OO language?
No, except you don't have to understand the OO parts. Which in most
languages I've used are really complicated.
I know one reason is that, IT started with C and so they are still using
them rather than changing it into new language.

No it didn't, but it is used heavily today.

[CBFalconer]

Neil Kurzman wrote:

"E. Robert Tisdale" wrote:

Chris Dutton wrote:

C is sometimes known as "portable assembler".
The key concept represented by this statement is that
C is closer to the machine that most other languages.

I don't know what that means.
Which "machine" is C "close to"?
Is C "farther" from machines that are not "close to"
the machine that C is "close to".
What sort of topology allows this sort of reasoning?

CPUs execute Op-Codes. The CPU does not know about languages.
C gives you more control over what the CPU will get.
.NET and Java... are not under the Programmers control.

_______________ ______
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/ O O\__ | feed the |
/ \ | Trolls |
/ \ \|_____________ ________|
/ _ \ \ ||
/ |\____\ \ ||
/ | | | |\____/ ||
/ \|_|_|/ | _||
/ / \ |____| ||
/ | | | --|
| | | |____ --|
* _ | |_|_|_| | \-/
*-- _--\ _ \ | ||
/ _ \\ | / `
* / \_ /- | | |
* ___ c_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c_______ _____

--
Chuck F (cb********@yah oo.com) (cb********@wor ldnet.att.net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home .att.net> USE worldnet address!