Programming @programming.dev @modev @snac.bsd.cafe 2mo ago

.dev It's time to return to the roots, to the C programming language.

@programming@programming.dev It's time to return to the roots, to the C programming language.

Why am I writing this post? Not because I hope for something or believe in change. These are just words. I could write this at the end, but then you would be looking for answers for me while reading, and I don’t need them. They won’t change anything.
So here it is. I don’t claim to be a software development guru or a C language expert. I’m just a simple developer.

- Why are we looking for new technologies? Why do we want to be part of a community that is buzzing with new projects? Why do we think that this new programming language will definitely help us create something amazing and truly great and, of course, will make us rich and provide us with a comfortable old age?

- Why are we offered so many courses in so many programming languages and frameworks? Why do we teach what is required for companies that make money from us?

- Why are there a lot of conferences on banal simple things, such as *** framework or ### technology (so as not to offend anyone), and there, with a smart look, newly minted gurus tell us how important it is to be able to transfer the value to the client and how to use certain templates?

- Why do computers become more and more powerful, but programs continue to lag?

- Why, when applying for a job, do we look for a vacancy based on knowledge of a programming language, but find it only based on knowledge of certain frameworks? Is it really difficult for a professional programmer to learn a framework in a week?

- Why do we go into software development with the enthusiasm to create something great, but end up in a situation where we are developing some other catalog or some other digital yo-yo to make money?

Reason: because we want our passion for programming, our interest, to also bring us income.
Result: we do not earn this money for ourselves, but for companies whose main goal is to quickly receive income from the software they sell.

I look at how programming has changed over the course of 25 years, what they teach at universities, and where they start. And I came to the conclusion that on a large scale, it was all for the benefit of giant companies or the government.

We must protect the “intimate” knowledge of the foundations and water the roots ourselves. Because they don’t realize, they don’t see that if the roots are not watered, the branches on which they sit will dry out. Therefore, who, if not us?!

19 comments

it’s time to return to the roots, FORTRAN and LISP and COBOL – C is the new technology
- Don't forget Algol-60. Per Tony Hoare, "Here is a language so far ahead of its time that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors."
- Slow down there, what's wrong with good ol' assembly?
- I know I've got a punch card sorter around here somewhere.
Are you high?

Why am I writing this post? Not because I hope for something or believe in change. These are just words. I could write this at the end, but then you would be looking for answers for me while reading, and I don’t need them. They won’t change anything.
So here it is. I don’t claim to be a software development guru or a C language expert. I’m just a simple developer.

What? People stopped using C because it takes forever to write. You're still stuck adding null terminators to string arrays and stressing about memory leaks and overflows. Even the Linux kernel / Linux Torvalds are moving towards Rust. That's evolution, and sometimes evolution is messy

Then the rest of your thing seems to be about how people shouldn't make money from coding? That's one of the most valuable skills of the information age, and you can become a millionaire in a decade doing it

Just contribute to open source if you want to do some "good deeds"
- Even the Linux kernel / Linux Torvalds are moving towards Rust.
  
  No, they aren't. They are experimenting with it in certain new device drivers. No move is planned, and it's too early to tell whether there will ever be one.
- There are just different communities. C still have mature community and own evolution, you just following hype, I also was high from rust in the past.
  
  I am not going to prove you something.
  This post is my vibe as from high...
  Someone resonate, others no, it doesn't matter. Maybe someone will find necessary high in it. In general nothing will change. C will not die and not going to die, so I have no intention to save it. It doesn't need it. C community knows it.
  
  Yeah idk or maybe use the right tool for the job rather than joining cults
C seems like an awfully painful way to write the CRUD apps most of us spend our time on.

And any performance gains would be invisible in most situations where network I/O is the biggest bottleneck (almost) regardless of the language used.
Why are we looking for new technologies?

Why are we writing new software? There's plenty already.
- We are trying to make better but in most cases we always migrate to new stacks, new languages, UI.
Go to bed, you're drunk.
That's right. Let's return to basics, to the first programming language we learn as developers: Pascal. Well at least I have, I assume everyone does too.

/s
- Ah, a youngling.
  
  My first programming language was Basic; my second, assembly; third, C. I didn't get to new-fangled languages like Pascal until i was in college, long after I'd learned the only really useful fundamentals of programming and computer software.
  
  Everything else is just gloss, convenience, and bloat.
Reject C, return to assembly. Structured programming is the true oppression our generation never talks about.
So my mentor's mentor used to program for some ancient TI machine that used drum memory. He was a master of his craft and wrote his code deliberately so it would physically align with the next rotation of the drum, ensuring the fastest reads possible, and it cut tons of time off of every process run on them.

I can't even imagine what it is like to even write naked binary, let alone make sure every single one of my operation sets are the same length.

Arguably it was perfect optimization.

He still got laid off with zero thought when the time came.

I's there a lesson here? I don't know, I'm drunk
- The Story of Mel
Totally get where you're coming from. Sometimes it feels like we're constantly chasing the latest tech trends instead of mastering the core principles. C is definitely one of those solid roots that has built so much of what we use today. It's good to remind ourselves that the fundamentals still matter and can even lead to more efficient, robust solutions.
- Yep. I am not against of new languages and tech stacks.
  I just bored from all these hype and propaganda around things that do not deserve it.

19 comments