Thread: I need information about C

Most C programmers are poor sods who just never learned how to use the superior C++
Well, maybe a little truth in it, but it's true that I don't understand why everyone bothers with C so much nowadays.

Originally Posted by stanlvw

A lot of users of C are hardware programmers who don't want to use assembly language or VHDL.

VHDL is not really a replacement for Assembler or C - VHDL is not a compilable language in the same sense as C, C++, Pascal, Fortran, Assembler, etc. Although most VHDL compilers support output of C or Assembler, the purpose of VHDL (and Verilog, along with a few other similar languages) is to describe chip designs, and the final production output would be a "transistor layout".

As to the general question: Use the right tool for the job.

C is a powerful, relatively low level, compact language. C++, as a general rule, tends to generate more code and the real advantage of C++ comes when you write large applications, where "reusing" base classes and the stronger isolation of objects and modules comes into play [I'm not at all saying that C++ can't be used in small apps - just like you CAN use a 18V Power Driver to screw in one screw - but a regular screwdriver will also be OK. But if you build a house, a hand-powered screwdriver will be less useful, and the 18V Power Driver comes to it's benefit - especially for those 4" #12 screws!].

There are places where the language is dictated - in Windows NT based OS's [NT, 2K XP, Vista], it's pretty difficult to write kernel level drivers in C++ - it CAN be done, but it requires some work to tweak new/delete, you can't have global objects [because there is no support for construction/destruction, since drivers don't start with "main"].

Conversely, Windows CE has C++ driver architecture [although I think there's some limitations - I don't KNOW, since I haven't been writing drivers for CE myself].

Likewise, Linux doesn't "do" kernel code in C++.

Most of this is not so much because C++ is unsuitable, but because SOME OF C++ is "difficult" to support in the kernel - and even if you have OS's written completely in C++, there are often limitations or restrictions to what you can do inside the kernel.

--
Mats

when a program is written in C - you need a C-programmer to continue work on this program.
When your customer wants to by a code - and in most cases the customer prefers to buy a code in C, not C++ - you have to have a programmer on C to creatre this code - you will want to sell.

Anyone thinking that C++ is better than C, and it is a reason not to continue the programming in C, will have to find another job...

Why does anyone want buy C code? That makes no sense to me.

Though matsp already said everything important...

Originally Posted by cpjust

Most common users of C: University students, and people who have no other choice (like when programming on a device that doesn't have a C++ compiler, or when updated existing C code).

I would say C is used high-performance libraries (libpng, libjpeg etc) and generally medium-scale software for which performance is more important than time spent on making it.

Originally Posted by cpjust

Why: Because they either don't know higher languages like C++, C# or Java, or because they have no choice other than C.

Nope. They just know it is the best language for doing that particular job.