27 May
2020
27 May
'20
1:50 a.m.
At Tue, 26 May 2020 10:32:43 -0400, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [TUHS] History of popularity of C
Dave that was exactly my point. Pascal was designed as a teaching
language so Wirth did not put things into the language that made it helpful
as a production language. So everyone else tried and the language became
a mess. Everybody peed on it. Dennis' quote: “When I read commentary
about suggestions for where C should go, I often think back and give thanks
that it wasn't developed under the advice of a worldwide crowd.”
<https://www.inspiringquotes.us/quotes/eDQR_hqwtHAC9>
And that's exactly what's wrong with C now -- except it's probably even
a bit worse for C as the majority of people who have been sitting on the
C standards committees for the past decades are primarily either those
with deeply funded agendas about how they think they can make more money
with the language if only it behaves a certain way (e.g. more like C++);
and/or a few academic compiler and optimizer experts who have strong
ideas about how they can eek the tiniest gains from their compilers if
only the spec says certain things. UB (undefined behaviour), for
example, should be stricken from the standard completely and forever.
Every behaviour MUST be defined, either by the implementation (with NO
recourse for or fallback to UB), or, strictly defined, by the standard.
--
Greg A. Woods <gwoods(a)acm.org>
Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack <woods(a)robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods(a)planix.com> Avoncote Farms <woods(a)avoncote.ca>