The philosophy of C

Larry J — 7/25/2005 6:15:16 PM (archived)

When C was created at Bell Labs back in the early 1970s, it was designed by professional programmers for professional programmers. As a result, C doesn't do any error checking for things like out of bounds or off by one errors. It doesn't check for such statements at compile or at run time. As a result, C programs tend to be smaller and execute faster than programs written in most other languages (other than assembly, of course).

C assumes you know what you're doing.
C is like shaving with a straight razor.
C will cheerfully let you cut your own throat.

Don't get me wrong, C was a wonderful language in its day and is still used for low level code (things like OS kernels) where speed and size are important. Almost all mainstream application software is object-oriented today, so later languages like C++ and Java are more widely used than C.

The whole thread (45 posts)

a comment on the go for shuttle launch - dwc - 7/25/2005 3:28:49 PM
- re: a comment on the go for shuttle launch - Stealth - 7/25/2005 10:34:41 PM
- re: a comment on the go for shuttle launch - Stealth - 7/25/2005 10:26:38 PM
- my view as posted on msnbc.com - JimO - 7/25/2005 10:03:54 PM
  - You're such a tease - Robert - 7/26/2005 11:42:49 PM
- Could you imagine what the doctors would say if you had a backup heart? - SteveS - 7/25/2005 4:56:42 PM
- Intermittent problems are tough to fix - Larry J - 7/25/2005 4:34:47 PM
  - re: Intermittent problems are tough to fix - phil - 7/26/2005 1:13:19 AM
  - It's like the "array out of bounds" bug in C programming - Gary - 7/25/2005 5:11:08 PM
    - which is itself the best argument against C. - A Programmer - 7/26/2005 3:36:48 AM
      - "Write once, run anywhere" - Robert - 7/27/2005 12:21:13 AM
        
        Love, respect, fear... - McFly - 7/28/2005 2:22:52 PM
        
        re: Love, respect, fear... - Robert - 7/29/2005 4:50:56 AM
        
        re: "Write once, run anywhere" -- will never happen, not even with Java - - - 7/27/2005 2:38:00 PM
        
        "Write once, cry everywhere" - Robert - 7/27/2005 6:46:49 PM
        
        don't you mean cry wolf everywhere, eh? ;-) - A. Prog. - 7/28/2005 11:39:56 PM
        
        re: don't you mean cry wolf everywhere, eh? ;-) - Robert - 7/29/2005 4:15:10 AM
        
        re: don't you mean cry wolf everywhere, eh? ;-) - A.P. - 7/29/2005 9:30:55 PM
        
        No, "cry havoc! and unlease the JARs of dogs!" - Robert - 7/29/2005 11:21:21 PM
        
        More like, "Write once, test everywhere" - Larry J - 7/27/2005 1:50:04 PM
        
        Evolution in action - Robert - 7/27/2005 5:23:14 PM
        
        re: Evolution in action - Larry J - 7/27/2005 7:27:59 PM
        
        re: Evolution in action - Robert - 7/27/2005 8:57:38 PM
        
        re: Evolution in action - Larry J - 7/27/2005 9:24:33 PM
        
        transformative technology - Robert - 7/28/2005 3:45:35 AM
        
        I use portability for debugging - Gary - 7/27/2005 3:40:22 PM
    - re: It's like the "array out of bounds" bug in C programming - Larry J - 7/25/2005 5:53:32 PM
      - No, that code snippet will actually run... - Gary - 7/26/2005 6:11:17 AM
        
        Run code run...C code run...PLEASE! - McFly - 7/27/2005 12:34:31 AM
        
        Programming languages that I've known and forgotten - Gary - 7/27/2005 5:18:07 AM
        
        Goodness sakes! - McFly - 7/28/2005 2:03:34 PM
        
        re: No, that code snippet will actually run... - Larry J - 7/26/2005 1:40:21 PM
        
        Darn it!! The Zone's HTML logic ruined that last post - Gary - 7/26/2005 6:19:12 AM
        
        Let's try this (reposting Gary's code) - Robert - 7/27/2005 5:39:40 AM
        
        It ran clean on the first pop (also I did not write this program) - Gary - 7/27/2005 5:48:07 AM
        
        I'm sorry - Robert - 7/26/2005 11:19:37 PM
        
        The fault is entirely mine - Gary - 7/27/2005 4:12:47 AM
        
        Let's split the difference - Robert - 7/27/2005 5:04:33 AM
        
        Hoist on me own filter - Robert - 7/27/2005 5:09:48 AM
        
        The symbols appeared clean for Mozilla 1.7.8 (n/t) - Gary - 7/27/2005 5:35:32 AM
      - seems right - Daniel - 7/25/2005 6:06:24 PM
        
        The philosophy of C - Larry J - 7/25/2005 6:15:16 PM
        
        I used it for a while in the late 90s - Daniel - 7/25/2005 6:27:19 PM
        
        another correction - D. - 7/25/2005 7:38:08 PM
        
        correction .. - D. - 7/25/2005 6:32:34 PM

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