Who Cheers For C When It Wins A Popularity Contest?
from the we've-got-spirit,-how-'bout-you? dept
While there are a variety of ways to judge the popularity of various programming languages, the TIOBE Programming Community index has ranked C as the most popular language for the first time in 4 years. At the top spot, C has no official corporate sponsor behind it -- but it's still available for nearly every platform imaginable. And arguably, it has always been the most popular programming language if all of its variants (C, C++, C#, Objective C) are counted together.Interestingly, though, other notable languages that have risen in popularity have done so under the direction of large corporations. For example, Apple is the main cheerleader behind the recent popularity of Objective C -- especially as this superset of C is now one of only 4 languages approved for coding iPhone/iPod/iPad apps. Also, Google's Go language has been getting noticed because it's a shiny new offering from everyone's favorite "do no evil" buddy -- and because it explicitly supports concurrent programming.
But with no major company pushing for C, it may be getting a bit long in the tooth as multi-core processors inspire programmers to increasingly use multi-threading techniques. C will certainly never die, but the last revision of C was adopted as an ANSI standard in March 2000. So it's been quite some time since C has been updated. In fact, the ISO's proposals for C changes also appear to be pretty conservative -- which is a good thing for stability and eliminating any confusion over what is supported. But will C be able to evolve and stay relevant?
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Filed Under: c, programming
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The Tiobe index is highly criticized by most programmers
SQL is not a programming language because you can't write an infinite loop in it? ColdFusion is a framework? Both ridiculous.
That said; so long as they keep their methods of calculating use consistent it might make an interesting study.
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it'll be the programming version of Latin.
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Re: it'll be the programming version of Latin.
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Great insight.
Languages like Objective C, Java and C#, while making the task "simpler", obfuscate greatly what is actually executing making high quality/detailed verification much more involved. While it is easy to verify the code you actually write, there is so much going on under the scenes that is NOT verified using these languages in many applications is simply forbidden.
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Re: it'll be the programming version of Latin.
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What the point
All the 'other' programming languages are built basically on C and are simple higher levels of abstraction taking you further and further away from the real underlying code.
Its easier for the programmer, (more simple), but takes away some control.
For truly nice high level programming language try downloading the trial version of LabVIEW, from National Instruments and have a play with G the graphical programming language they use.. It's very hard to go back to text based programming after using it.
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Anonymous Coward has it right and Darryl is lost.
When you look at your car (and the 100,000's of lines of code in all its systems), microwave ovens (and the 1,000's of lines of code in each one), avionics (and the 10,000,000's of lines of code to talk to various sub-systems), remote controls (and the 1,000's of lines of code in each one) and hundreds of other devices.
These embedded devices require a level of code testing and transparency simply not offered by "higher level" languages. JAVA, however, has a strong (but still weak compared to "C") embedded standing.
In short, the embedded market is HUGE. Simple HUGE. And it is almost all "C" with some assembly. Multi-core? Who cares. Ada? Dead and almost not used in any avionics systems even in the military. Yes, the C-17 and B1B are "C" based now-a-days with Ada being phased out of all systems.
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C language
C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.
-- Bjarne Stroustrup
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C Language
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C Language
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future of c
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http://www.sitesxray.com/
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