On the development of C

[Tony]

Is four the exact number?

C is maybe also powerful, flexible, small ...

I want to know the answers to the following questions for a long time.
Can they be C FAQs?

1. Where do these advantages of C show in the language itself?

There is no advantage, it's just that the better languages are still under
development.

2. Why is C better than another languages (eg. D++) in all the
aspects?

It's not: it's the worst. It just happens to be the first (early).

 

[Guest]

Is four the exact number?

its the exact number used above...

C is maybe also powerful, flexible, small ...

I want to know the answers to the following questions for a long time.
Can they be C FAQs?

have they been Frequently Asked?

1. Where do these advantages of C show in the language itself?

I don't understand the question. What is "the language itself"?
If you mean "without the library", the answer is still The Four
Attributes (see above).

2. Why is C better than another languages (eg. D++) in all the
aspects?

Since I've never heard of D++ It's The Four Attributes again.

Seriously, one of C's major pluses is that it is portable and
widely available. It does low-level programming well.

 

[Guest]

You say eg. fast, but how fast is it?

It's meaningless to talk about the absolute speed of a
*language*. An implementation has a speed on a particular benchmark.

Why is it so fast?

C tends to be compiled. It is a relativlty straightforward
imperetive language. It is close to the bare machine. This
makes naive code generation strategies pretty effective.

A lot of modern languages (Java, Python, Ruby) tend to
interpreted and/or run on virtual machines. This tends
to make them slower.

Is there another language faster than C?

Fortran? The Stalin Scheme compiler?

And Do it have disadvantages?

Not being C?

I think you're going to have to explain why you asking these questions
and possibly explain what sort of answer would satisfy you. I small
some sort of agenda.

 

[Richard Bos]

And the point of posting this followup 6 days later is ...?

He wanted to be in the game, as well?

Richard

 

[Richard Bos]

So the question is whether you have to worry about someone with a
debugger, and whether you have to worry about someone changing the
files.

However, which is more likely, and which is easier to prevent?

Richard

 

[Richard Bos]

Your complaint is not with me if you have one, it is with Microsoft.
Wrong...

Unless you tell me what menu to go to. I agree there is an issue. I don't think it
is Tony.

....and wrong.

I have _two_ complaints. One is about idiot companies who sell broken
software. The other is about idiot users who refuse to learn how to make
the software they've chosen to use, behave so that it doesn't irritate
others. I do not wish to make either of those complaints more important
than the other; Micronuts are themselves as much to blame for their
broken posts as Microsoft is.

Richard

 

[Richard Bos]

What I propose is not going into the extremes. That's why
I am attacked from all sides

Seriously, jacob... go see a shrink. You have a persecution complex.

Richard

 

[Richard Bos]

Not really. People do often work with future times; consider, for
instance, printing out a payment schedule for a 30 year fixed-rate
mortgage.

Those people should know better, though, than to rely on the C library's
time_t for their date requirements.

The time to start the transition is now, while the problems
are still relatively infrequent.

This, however, remains true. If only because if we leave it until we
have to, experience tell us that we'll have left it until we _had_ to,
about five years previously.

Richard

 

[Harald van Dijk]

The 32-bit signed 0x80000000 can be a representation of time zero. Note
that time wrap and time zero are distinct from unsigned wrap and
unsigned zero.

You're saying that time_t could be a 32-bit unsigned integer type, with
one bit that contributes to its integral value, but is ignored by ctime
e.a., right? If so, then sure, that's allowed. I imagine it's about as
likely as my suggestion of a 31-bit integer type, though, which was sort
of my point.

 

[Tony]

Seriously, one of C's major pluses is that it is portable and
widely available. It does low-level programming well.

No comment.

 

[Tony]

Is this really something to care that much about? Life is short.

Apparently I have nothing better to do this minute than to call him an
asshole.

 

[Richard Bos]

Is this really something to care that much about? Life is short.

I care so little that I put broken quoters, and similar idiots, right at
the bottom of my list of people to reply to.

Richard