Why C Programming Is Awesome

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[thecoderabbi]

C is really awesome!
The creators of C (Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie) deserve so much respect, they literally built the foundation of modern programming.
Thanks Chris Hawkes!

[moofymoo]

1. turn off distractions,
2. plug into computer ibm model m keyboard
3. write some C and feel like a real programmer again.

[baruchben-david]

I've used C for going on 40 years now... I still like how it works. One advantage is that it's small. I don't think there are even 100 keywords to the whole thing. I like that simplicity. The standard libraries are well tested and robust. C has proved to be a most useful tool.

[avroB]

Perl is based on C too.
Apart from their source code, C is to almost all modern languages what Latin is to European languages.

[cf]

"Why using default powerpoint templates is also awesome."

[christheother]

I used to fly hang gliders. Now I program in C and use lots and lots of pointers. Dangerous fun and nobody gets hurt.

[bamootheelephant]

I C that you really like this language.

[xXUnoriginalNameXxMeygaera]

The reason why I like C the best is simple.
What you "C" is what you get!

[thesanctuary]

When you get into C, you get into the Hell of debugging...
I like C anyway...

[paprika]

I have to say, although C can be a pain to deal with and it is certainly not my first choice to use for anything, I am really glad that it was my first language. You learn all about building your own data structures from scratch, manually managing memory, etc. and then you feel like a master when you go into languages like ruby and python and realize that you don't need to do any of that stuff :)

[Outfrost]

I honestly think that pulling up embedded systems / microcontrollers, kernel development and the age of the language as the main strong points of C does the language a disservice, because these are the things perhaps most commonly associated with C and the usual reasons why C is shunted to the side and disregarded when it comes to discussing or choosing programming languages. The need to have "an intimate knowledge of how a computer is actually operating" is also not a reason for C's awesomeness, and neitehr is the need to manage the program's memory. Saying that C is great because other languages or their implementations are built on C also, in my opinion, serves little purpose - if we, as humanity, have taken tool X and our knowledge of it, and with it we've built tools Y and Z that make our jobs easier and help us achieve what we want with less effort, why would we go back to using tool X for those same jobs?

I think you've missed a good deal of why C is actually awesome to the programmer. It's well-designed - simple, consistent and with a high degree of semantic coherence. It does a good job of telling the programmer what the code does, without making it overly complicated. It doesn't make the programmer work hard for that information, at least definitely not as hard as with some other languages (_cough_ c++ _cough_ sorry, I have a cold); it doesn't obscure its low-level workings, but it also doesn't prematurely force implementation details on the programmer. It's flexible - you can do both operating system kernel implementation, and high-level application programming, all in the same language, without much effort at all. It's so old and still used today for all sorts of tasks because of how well it has stood the test of time and how strong its design has turned out to be. It's easy to pick up, learn, and do stuff with, even without the "intimate knowledge" about CPUs and memory, because nearly every high school kid is smart enough to write a C program that asks for 2 integers, adds them together, and spits out the result, during their very first class about the language. And probably some other neat things about C that I've forgotten about.

Cool video idea, but I think a lot of people in the industry really miss out on the true elegance of C. The bland powerpoint slides with a mouse pointer racing across them didn't help the video, either :P

[anzakhan]

If you're into embedded systems design C is probably the language you should start with because most microcontrollers use it, for example your Arduino uses what's essentially C programming.

[ivesennightfall]

fun fact about the mars curiosity rover: there are microcontrollers on it that were programmed in BASIC

[mattyjmar]

"I'm not a deep C guy." #punny

[gnagyusa]

C has the perfect level of abstraction from the hardware. It's high-enough to be 100% portable, and human-readable, but it's low-enough to be efficient for performance- and memory use sensitive applications.
And, it's much easier to understand other people's code than in something like C++, where you can even overwrite operators (what I call an encryption / obfuscation scheme, rather than a helpful language feature). With C99 and later, you can also create an excellent object-oriented runtime, way better than C++.

[eddie]

C is easier to learn and faster to compile compared to C++. You have forgotten to mention one of the most important benefits of C that is a proper stable ABI.

[someonespecial]

I started doing a little bit of Python. Then, after going to college (still studying) and learning how to create algorithms in pseudocode and to program in C, has made me a much better overall programmer. I still have a lot to learn, but I can't wait to keep going and keep getting better.

[FlashManinSpace]

I learned C as my first programming language and it's so efficient that I have no idea why anyone would even bother with OOP. And with the right text editor like Vim you can type C reeeeaally fast.

[BruceBigby]

Back in the 80s, even user applications were written in C. You can use C for low level development to high level development.

[anarki]

What did Ms. Java say to Mr. C?
....





"Stop objectifying me!"