Re: XML as a transition to s-expr

[Paul Graham <address@hidden>]

I think C would be very useful if it were introduced today.
As higher-level languages have become more popular, C seems
to be seen more and more as a kind of portable assembly
language, but that is a very convenient thing to have.

What really seems to have been happening (largely because
there is more CPU to go around) is not that C has become
outdated, but that people can now program one level of
abstraction higher, in a world where everything is a 
pointer, memory is GCed, etc.  But that world isn't 
new; it is in fact older than C.

Basically, programming practice has climbed (or is
climbing) up to the second floor, but the second floor
was always there, and the first floor doesn't go away
when you climb up to the second.


--- Pixel <pixel@mandrakesoft.com> wrote:
> Bruce Lewis <brlewis@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
> > char *argv[];
> >   and
> > printf("%s\n", foo);
> >   aren't exactly newbie-friendly core syntax.
> > 
> > C managed to become popular despite this difficulty.
> 
> do you think C would be successful if it would be a introduced
> nowadays?
> hopefully not!
> 
> C is *old*, and when it was introduced it was not that bad compared
> to the
> other languages available at that time (for system programming).


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of
your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com
or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com