user923005 <dc*****@connx. comwrote:
On Apr 25, 5:16?am, jacob navia <ja...@nospam.c omwrote:
In an interviw with Dr Dobbs, Paul Jansen explains which languages are
gaining in popularity and which not:
Who's Paul Jansen?
<quote>
DDJ: Which languages seem to be losing ground?
PJ: C and C++ are definitely losing ground. There is a simple
explanation for this. Languages without automated garbage collection are
getting out of fashion. The chance of running into all kinds of memory
problems is gradually outweighing the performance penalty you have to
pay for garbage collection.
<end quote>
lcc-win has been distributing a GC since 2004.
It really helps.
Is lcc-win outselling Microsoft or Intel's compilers?
I guess that most C work is at the embedded level today. I doubt if
we will have garbage collectors running in our toasters any time soon.
When people merely say "embedded", I think it confuses the issue.
The places where C continues to be used, and will continue to be used, are
places where the problem is very well defined, and the solution amenable to
a fixed interface. This happens to be the case for embedded hardware
products, as well as for many elements of more general purpose computing
platforms: SQL databases, libraries or applications implementing
well-defined specifications (XML, HTTP), and other "optimizing " parts of
applications in more higher-level languages, not to mention virtual
machines, etc. C is a simple language, and it can express these solutions
quite readily.
Because of the way software systems are constructed (especially "edge"
systems, like web applications), and because of the growth of the IT sector
(particularly in number of programmers), it's inevitable that C will become
_relatively_ diminished. By itself, of course, this means very little for C.
And I think that when people characterize the C community as "mostly
embedded developers", they fall into the trap of excusing or explaining a
supposed shift; but I don't see a shift in C usage much at all.
Before Java and C# there was Visual Basic and Delphi. There's still Visual
Basic. There are untold numbers of people programming in PHP. I remember
when Cold Fusion came out. Many corporations jumped on it because it
promised managers the ability to repurpose "functional " personnel for doing
"technical" work; i.e. turn your average Joe into a "programmer ". There's
nothing wrong w/ that, but when it happens it doesn't mean C is becoming
less popular in the sense that its role is being overcome by other
languages. And there's no reason to think that C is "retreating " to the
hidden world of toaster software anymore than it always has; which is to
say: it's not.
All that's happening is that there are myriad new _types_ of applications,
many of which C is not well suited for. The old _types_ are still there, and
usage is growing in absolute terms. There's no need for a bunker mentality.