The C is dead, long live the C

[Jeremy Fowler]

However your reasoning is flawed. People are still developing C to make it a
better language. Hence my reference to C99, a new standard that supports many
new features. So the C language is not a solid brick as you would believe. As
soon as someone stops developing something, then it is dead; because it soon
becomes obsolete. OS2, BeOS, MSDOS are good examples of dead software.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Adam Turk
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 6:36 AM
To: kclug at kclug.org
Subject: Re: The C is dead, long live the C

>I thought the point he was making was not that C is "dead," as in nobody
uses it,
>only that C is "dead," in that it is a brick, or a foundation upon which we
now are
>building. It is alive in the fact that much coding is done in C, yet it is
dead in
>that Adam is urging us to move beyond C. We can only move beyond C if we
>see it as it is: a single brick in the foundation...

Yes, C is like Latin. No nation on earth uses Latin as a common tongue.
Therefore, it never changes - it is dead. I am not blasting C, I am an ardent
supporter of the langauge and code almost entirely in it (and/or C++, of
course). C is something like THE cornerstone of the tower, the one brick that
without which the whole tower would be very short. C is arguably the one
language we cannot let go of. From it springs all other contemporary languages.

>Look at Color Forth for a paradigm shift on where C's postcessor could be
>taking us...

>http://www.colorforth.com/

Intriguing. I'll have to look at that further. Obviously an intelligent man with
some good ideas. I like the idea of color-based source. I wonder how that could
be extended.

Adam

        If the Tao is great, then the operating system is great.  If the
operating system is great, then the compiler is great.  If the compiler
is great, then the application is great.  If the application is great, then
the user is pleased and there is harmony in the world.
        The Tao gave birth to machine language.  Machine language gave birth
to the assembler.
        The assembler gave birth to the compiler.  Now there are ten thousand
languages.
        Each language has its purpose, however humble.  Each language
expresses the Yin and Yang of software.  Each language has its place within
the Tao.
        But do not program in COBOL if you can avoid it.
                -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"