On Wed, 2003-08-27 at 01:54, Loren M Lang wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Alex Malinovich wrote: > > > The recent COBOL discussion has gotten me to thinking. Some languages > > seem to be very popular in some situations. C is easily the dominant > > language for most things Linux. So therein lies the question. Why, > > exactly, is C so popular? Especially in comparison to C++. I can't think > > of a single reason to use C instead of C++ for most of the coding that I > > would do. I generally only write user applications. I don't get anywhere > > near the kernel which is where I'd imagine most of the reason for using > > C comes in. Yet I see people writing 'modern' GUI applications and using > > C when I would think C++ would be a much better choice. Is there > > something that I'm missing? Something that C actually does better than > > C++ in regards to higher-level functions? > > I can think of a few reasons myself: > 1) Compatibility > 2) Speed > 3) Portability
It's only compatible and portable on similar platforms. Any C code that chock full of Linux system calls won't portable to any other platform unless a (gasp) compatibility layer is written 1st. Same thing happens with glibc. There are functions in it which are non-portable to Solaris, AIX & HP-UX, not to mention non-Unix OSs. Bottom line: I can write user-level C code that is *highly* de- pendant on a given OS and libc implementation. COBOL and FORTRAN are probably the 2 most portable languages, since they are so highly specified, and there are always compiler options to flag implementation extensions. Python is *very* portable, but even it has platform-specific functions. It's relatively easy, though, to compensate with run- time conditional execution. Given that the app programmer is adequately skilled and uses the proper algorithms, speed is dependent upon the compiler writer's skill, nothing more. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ron Johnson, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jefferson, LA USA The difference between Rock&Roll and Country Music? Old Rockers still on tour are pathetic, but old Country singers are still great. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
