Is writing C code very simple?

[lovecreatesbeauty]

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
I'm not sure whether he is an expert or not. What he said about C
programming like this can't convince me. I think there should be two
kinds of people can make such a comment on C programming. One is C
expert with rich experiences of some years on real projects; The other
is opportunist idiocy of C programming.

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Thinks for your messages and opinion.

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

lovecreatesbeauty <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote:

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Writing code in any language worth writing in is an art.

--
Christopher Benson-Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
ataru(at)cyberspace.org | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[John Bode]

lovecreatesbeauty wrote:

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
I'm not sure whether he is an expert or not. What he said about C
programming like this can't convince me. I think there should be two
kinds of people can make such a comment on C programming. One is C
expert with rich experiences of some years on real projects; The other
is opportunist idiocy of C programming.

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Thinks for your messages and opinion.

The act of writing code is simple. Getting it to work right is the
hard bit.

C has a shallow but long learning curve; you can start writing useful
code almost immediately, but it takes a long time to truly master the
language. There are a lot of quirks and special cases and things that
seem obvious but really aren't that you have to learn over time. C can
be frustratingly subtle one moment and just plain brain-damaged the
next.

I wouldn't say it's qualitatively more difficult to write C code than
any other language. However, the bulk of my experience is in older
3GLs (C, Fortran, Ada, etc.), so take that with the appropriate dose of
salt.

[tmp123]

Develop a program, in any programming language, is not simple.

Relation between programmer experience and programmer who things that
programming is not easy is directly proportional.

[Chris Torek]

In article <11**********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
lovecreatesbeauty <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote:

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
Writing English is `very simple', too ... for some definition
of `very simple'. How many English-language writers can turn
out *good* short stories, or novels, or poetry?
What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Wind River Systems
Salt Lake City, UT, USA (40°39.22'N, 111°50.29'W) [phone]
email: forget about it http://web.torek.net/torek/index.html
Reading email is like searching for food in the garbage, thanks to spammers.

[Richard Heathfield]

lovecreatesbeauty said:

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.

He's right. But nobody said it was easy.

--
Richard Heathfield
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999
http://www.cpax.org.uk
email: rjh at above domain (but drop the www, obviously)

[Keith Thompson]

Chris Torek <no****@torek.net> writes:

In article <11**********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
lovecreatesbeauty <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote:

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.

Writing English is `very simple', too ... for some definition
of `very simple'. How many English-language writers can turn
out *good* short stories, or novels, or poetry?

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"

I'd say that coding is a craft, not an art. The difference is that a
C program can be unambiguously wrong; art, on the other hand, is in
the mind of the beholder.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[Mark McIntyre]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:32:46 GMT, in comp.lang.c , Keith Thompson
<ks***@mib.org> wrote:

Chris Torek <no****@torek.net> writes:

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"

I'd say that coding is a craft, not an art. The difference is that a
C program can be unambiguously wrong; art, on the other hand, is in
the mind of the beholder.

I guess some would argue that Picasso's cubist stuff was unambiguously
wrong with regard to key aspects of drawing, eg perspective. Others
don't care. It pretty much depends what you want it to do for you.
Mark McIntyre
--

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

[buda]

"Chris Torek" <no****@torek.net> wrote in message
news:do*********@news1.newsguy.com...

In article <11**********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
lovecreatesbeauty <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote:

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"

<OT>
There is an unfortunate (for this matter) duality to the meaning of the word
'art' in the English language. Coding is certainly an art in the sense that
is close to 'skill', or something similar. However, I don't see how one
could make a case about coding being an art in the other sense (like
painting, music or whatnot). Sure, you can find beauty even in code, both
writing it and reading it, but that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion. I
think "other people" think saying coding (or math for that matter) is an art
(in the poetry sense) is extremely geeky :) I don't care much about that as
such, but thinking about comparing even the most beautiful piece of code
with a 'quality' poem seems silly :) On the other hand, a whole bunch of
things are considered art by the "highly cultured people" (like a straight
line of black paint on a square meter of white paper), so I guess coding can
beat that without braking a sweat :)
</OT>

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Keith Thompson <ks***@mib.org> wrote:

I'd say that coding is a craft, not an art. The difference is that a
C program can be unambiguously wrong; art, on the other hand, is in
the mind of the beholder.

Granted, but a C program can be unambiguously correct but not possess
the elusive quality of "elegance". There are enough style zealots out
there that there must be *some* element of art in this field.

--
Christopher Benson-Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
ataru(at)cyberspace.org | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[Chris Torek]

>"Chris Torek" <no****@torek.net> wrote in message

news:do*********@news1.newsguy.com...

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"

In article <do**********@ss405.t-com.hr>
buda <re***********@hotmail.com> wrote:<OT>
There is an unfortunate (for this matter) duality to the meaning of the word
'art' in the English language.
Actually, I was using this in my reply, because good poetry makes
effective use of ambiguity. :-)
Coding is certainly an art in the sense that
is close to 'skill', or something similar.
Yes. Or -- I think this is actually a better analogy than poetry,
but it did not lend itself as much to the desired ambiguity :-) --
architecture (as in buildings), which includes both "engineering"
aspects (it is bad if the building falls down) and "beauty" aspects
(unadorned concrete buildings may be structurally sound but are
usually considered ugly).
However, I don't see how one could make a case about coding being
an art in the other sense (like painting, music or whatnot). Sure,
you can find beauty even in code, both writing it and reading it,
but that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

Without stretching at all, I find some code quite beautiful, and
some code quite ugly. On the other hand, it is true that there is
no accounting for taste. :-)

(The original poster failed, in my opinion anyway, to distinguish
clearly whether he was interested in "algorithmic and syntactic
beauty", "engineering soundness", or both. In my experience,
neither is trivial in *any* programming language. But some languages
are more obtrusive than others: Fortran-66 and COBOL make "clean
syntax" difficult, for instance.)
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Wind River Systems
Salt Lake City, UT, USA (40°39.22'N, 111°50.29'W) [phone]
email: forget about it http://web.torek.net/torek/index.html
Reading email is like searching for food in the garbage, thanks to spammers.

[Malcolm]

"lovecreatesbeauty" <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote

`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
I'm not sure whether he is an expert or not. What he said about C
programming like this can't convince me. I think there should be two
kinds of people can make such a comment on C programming. One is C
expert with rich experiences of some years on real projects; The other
is opportunist idiocy of C programming.

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Thinks for your messages and opinion.

If you have an aptitude for programming, it should take you about a week to
learn the C language.
Similarly if you have some aptitude for writing, it should take you about a
week to learn the rules of blank verse.
Having mastered your iambic pentameters, it will take considerably more than
a week to write a produceable play, but it is by no means unachieveable. I
wrote one myself as a sxith-former.
If you want to write a play better than "Hamlet" however, you will find it
very difficult. Very few playwrights succeed even after years of trying.
Even Shakespeare, I'm sure, would have agreed that there was more he could
learn about writing plays.

[slebetman]

buda wrote:

"Chris Torek" <no****@torek.net> wrote in message
news:do*********@news1.newsguy.com...

In article <11**********************@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
lovecreatesbeauty <lo***************@gmail.com> wrote:

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?
All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"

<OT>
There is an unfortunate (for this matter) duality to the meaning of the word
'art' in the English language. Coding is certainly an art in the sense that
is close to 'skill', or something similar. However, I don't see how one
could make a case about coding being an art in the other sense (like
painting, music or whatnot). Sure, you can find beauty even in code, both
writing it and reading it, but that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion. I
think "other people" think saying coding (or math for that matter) is an art
(in the poetry sense) is extremely geeky :)

I am an artist, engineer and programmer so I guess I'm qualified to
comment on this. The way you look at art, that is looking at 'beauty',
is how a non-artist looks at art. The way artists, when among
themselves, look at art is different. It is very much how a programmer
looks at a piece of code. Artists, when looking at art, consider things
programmers often consider when looking at code. The technical
difficulties in achieving an effect. The problems and solutions in
producing the artwork. The originality of idea. The (minimal or
excessive) use of materials and resources. What can be achieved with
very limited resources. Wasted resources. The engineering involved
(especially for very large sculptures). How viewers (end users) respond
to your artwork.

These technical details are often not fully appreciated by the casual
observer just as protected memory and pre-emptive multasking are not
fully appreciated by the casual Windows users.

When I'm with my art friends, the contents of the conversation change
but the kind of conversation is very similar to what find in
engineering circles: problem solving. The artist, like the engineer, is
essentially a problem solver. And like the engineer, the artist have
formal tools at his disposal: vanishing point perspective, color theory
etc.
I don't care much about that as such, but thinking about comparing even the
most beautiful piece of code with a 'quality' poem seems silly :)

That may be (I've never been good at literature) but when photographers
talk about the perfect shot they talk about shutter speed, film grain
and color saturation the way programmers talk about modularity, code
clarity and scalability in the perfect code.

Of course, there is the middle ground when the two actually meet such
as HTML where both the code and the artwork can be made to be
beautiful.

PS: Check out my "art" art at: http://slebetman.homeip.net/nart.html
for coding art, that site runs on a web server I wrote myself.

[sanjaymeher]

Reading all these seems ALL PROGRAMMERS ARE IN A LUNCH TIME BREAK !!!!
Please C other threads
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..
Thanks

[Afifov]

Coding in C is like working at the molecular/atomic level of everything in
the world. Everything is made up of atoms, so if you know your atomic
structure, you know the object.

And if you programme in C, then you know your programming!

Java is written in C. go figure.

[mensanator]

Afifov wrote:

Coding in C is like working at the molecular/atomic level of everything in
the world. Everything is made up of atoms, so if you know your atomic
structure, you know the object.
Although there are times when looking at the forest rather than the
trees is preferable.

And if you programme in C, then you know your programming!

Java is written in C. go figure.

[Giannis Papadopoulos]

Afifov wrote:

Coding in C is like working at the molecular/atomic level of everything in
the world. Everything is made up of atoms, so if you know your atomic
structure, you know the object.

And if you programme in C, then you know your programming!

Java is written in C. go figure.

All the Java environment (apart for the core of the Java Virtual Machine
which is written in C/C++ in many implementations) is written in Java.

Swing and other stuff that are closely connected with the underlying
OS/hardware are written in either C or C++ (depending on programmer's
preference) and use JNI.

Java is not written in C. Just parts of it.