Why do you like C more than other programming languages?

[istillshine]

There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

I like C because, comparatively, it is small, efficient, and able to
handle large and complex tasks.

I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

[santosh]

is*********@gma il.com wrote:

There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them.

Then you are probably prejudiced. Each language has certain merits and
demerits. You must try not to approach other languages from a C point
of view and vice versa. You will likely end up judging them unfairly or
inappropriately .

Is it because C was my first programming language?

No. It's probably because you are, despite what you might tell yourself,
probably looking to criticise.

I like C because, comparatively, it is small, efficient, and able to
handle large and complex tasks.

I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

Because some types of programming are made more efficient by languages
specifically meant for them. C is a general purpose language and while
it can theoretically be programmed to do any computation possible on a
Turing machine, many tasks are rendered easier to accomplish with
specific languages. You will appreciate this if you attempt widely
varied programming tasks.

[Walter Roberson]

In article <ed************ *************** *******@y38g200 0hsy.googlegrou ps.com>,
<is*********@gm ail.comwrote:

>There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

>I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

One uses the best tool for the task at hand.

At work, these days I mostly use two programming languages,
MATLAB and Maple.

MATLAB has been designed to provide interactive prototyping of a mix of
array operations and graphics; it is suitable for the needs of my major
task because that major task involves R&D of a package for visualizing
the results of performing various mathematical operations upon data
sets. Formal design is not especially practical in our environment,
as we change our mind several times a day about what we're trying to do,
as our experiences or further thoughts or additional papers tell us
more about what does or does not work, so a prototyping language is
appropriate for the task. When we've figured out what we want done
and how it should be done, a team will take it over and re-write it
in a structured language such as C or C++.

Maple I use to compute symbolic formulae. It has an extensive
library of symbolic manipulation routines; it would be completely
impractical for us to use C to write routines to do complicated
symbolic integration. No point in re-inventing the wheel!
I don't use Maple for any kind of hard-core numeric evaluation
of data: I use it to figure out good ways to express formulae.
For example, for solving simultaneous non-linear equations
and then finding a compact form for expressing the parametric
form of the intersection.

--
"Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath
been already of old time, which was before us." -- Ecclesiastes

[Ron Ford]

On Tue, 8 Jul 2008 03:31:41 +0000 (UTC), Walter Roberson posted:

In article <ed************ *************** *******@y38g200 0hsy.googlegrou ps.com>,
<is*********@gm ail.comwrote:

>>There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

>>I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

One uses the best tool for the task at hand.

At work, these days I mostly use two programming languages,
MATLAB and Maple.

MATLAB has been designed to provide interactive prototyping of a mix of
array operations and graphics; it is suitable for the needs of my major
task because that major task involves R&D of a package for visualizing
the results of performing various mathematical operations upon data
sets. Formal design is not especially practical in our environment,
as we change our mind several times a day about what we're trying to do,
as our experiences or further thoughts or additional papers tell us
more about what does or does not work, so a prototyping language is
appropriate for the task. When we've figured out what we want done
and how it should be done, a team will take it over and re-write it
in a structured language such as C or C++.

Maple I use to compute symbolic formulae. It has an extensive
library of symbolic manipulation routines; it would be completely
impractical for us to use C to write routines to do complicated
symbolic integration. No point in re-inventing the wheel!
I don't use Maple for any kind of hard-core numeric evaluation
of data: I use it to figure out good ways to express formulae.
For example, for solving simultaneous non-linear equations
and then finding a compact form for expressing the parametric
form of the intersection.

I thought Walter might express an affinity to perl, which I've seen him
post when asked a question that needed a language appropriate to perl's
purview.

You never really can get away from C, try as you will. I have affairs with
syntaxes but find the influence of C is always right under the hood. In my
syntax of choice, fortran, they defined an ISO_C_BINDING last standard
around. It's public comments now for the new standard, so it's getting a
little thick there.
--
Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey
cage.
H. L. Mencken

[Dand]

<is*********@gm ail.comwrote in message
news:ed******** *************** ***********@y38 g2000hsy.google groups.com...

There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

I like C because, comparatively, it is small, efficient, and able to
handle large and complex tasks.

I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

I think on any low-level tasks its by far the best choice and in many cases
the only real alternative to assembly.

As for high-end PC software, I would probably say no. Try programming even a
simple windows API ap and you will see why, 1000 lines of code just to get
one window to appear.

[jacob navia]

Dand wrote:

<is*********@gm ail.comwrote in message
news:ed******** *************** ***********@y38 g2000hsy.google groups.com...

>There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

I like C because, comparatively, it is small, efficient, and able to
handle large and complex tasks.

I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

I think on any low-level tasks its by far the best choice and in many cases
the only real alternative to assembly.

As for high-end PC software, I would probably say no. Try programming even a
simple windows API ap and you will see why, 1000 lines of code just to get
one window to appear.

This is not true.

You can use the windows API in C. Many compilers under windows
will generate a windows skeleton for you. lcc-win, for instance
needs 2-3 clicks in a "wizard" and you get all the basic framework
written for you.

The advantage of using the windows API is that you are NOT tied to
a specific library and you get the advantage of using and reusing
the same code in all versions of windows.

I started writing the IDE of lcc-win under windows 16 bits. It was
ported to 32 bits, then to 64 bits with much less effort than it
would have been if I was dependent on a third party library.

Take MFC for instance. The last version of it dated from
1998. Recently (some months ago) Microsoft decided to bring a new
update, the first since 1998. If you program using MFC you
would have been forced to use the API anyway since the library
wasn't updated.

Other libraries like Borland's or the hundreds of libraries that
were developed have all disappeared. Programming in C with the
raw API is a guarantee that your code will survive.

--
jacob navia
jacob at jacob point remcomp point fr
logiciels/informatique
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32

[Richard Heathfield]

Dand said:

<snip>

Try programming
even a simple windows API ap and you will see why, 1000 lines of code
just to get one window to appear.

You are exaggerating by a very, very, very great margin. To get one window
to appear, you need only call CreateWindow (or, if it is already created,
ShowWindow) - one line of code. If it is the *first* window of its type to
appear, then you must first set up an appropriate window class (not the OO
kind) - i.e. define and populate a reasonably small struct - and then call
a function to register the class.

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk >
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

[Richard Heathfield]

is*********@gma il.com said:

There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

There are many colours around: Red, PURPLE, GREY, and so on. I tried to
like Red and GREY, but ended up criticising them. Is it because I've
always been very fond of Green?

I like C because, comparatively, it is small, efficient, and able to
handle large and complex tasks.

I like C because it's easy, which in turn means I can write stuff in C
pretty quickly that would take me longer in some other language.

I could not understand why people are using and talking about other
programming languages.

Cultural diversity is a Good Thing.

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk >
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

[Bartc]

<is*********@gm ail.comwrote in message
news:ed******** *************** ***********@y38 g2000hsy.google groups.com...

There are many languages around: C++, JAVA, PASCAL, and so on. I
tried to learn C++ and JAVA, but ended up criticizing them. Is it
because C was my first programming language?

I like C because, comparatively, it is small,

C is deceptively small. It's so small that some ten years on hardly anyone
has managed to create a full compiler for the latest standard... and some
compilers have lists of options that are bigger than your entire
application!

>efficient

It's not bad, but when I needed speed I had to use asm code.

>, and able to handle large and complex tasks.

Yeah, it's able to.

I think it wasn't for it's #define statement to program your way of trouble,
C's usefulness would be seriously diminished.

In fact #define may well be the most important feature in C. (Although,
#define may also have hindered C's normal development as a language:
everytime someone proposes a genuine improvement, someone else will come up
with an ugly #hack, sorry, #define, macro to do the same job nearly, but not
quite, as well.)

--
Bartc

[Walter Roberson]

In article <1r************ *************** **@40tude.net>,
Ron Ford <wa********@net zero.netwrote:

>On Tue, 8 Jul 2008 03:31:41 +0000 (UTC), Walter Roberson posted:

>At work, these days I mostly use two programming languages,
MATLAB and Maple.

>I thought Walter might express an affinity to perl, which I've seen him
post when asked a question that needed a language appropriate to perl's
purview.

Yes, I use perl when I have something perl-ish to do. However,
my job duties changed a few years ago, from systems work to R&D,
so it is now far less common that perl is the right tool for
what I am doing these days; it was a good tool when I needed to do
practical text extraction and reporting such as using SNMP probes
to detect whether someone had illicitly moved a device to another port
in our network.
--
"It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how
little most men will do when they don't have to."
-- Walter Linn