ClaytonB
Member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2011
- Messages
- 10,243
Biden White House urges developers to dump C and C++
Central-planners gonna central plan. I've been hearing this drumbeat for decades from a certain "crowd" within the universities, etc. "C is obsolete! C is unsafe! C needs to be retired!" Nobody in industry believes this, except for a few brainwashed types.
This is like calling on the auto-industry to stop using threaded screws and bolts because they can loosen, and people scrape their knuckles when using them. As a language (convention), C is baked into the entire *nix structure, meaning, Unix, Linux, BSD, and their variants. The 'cc' command in *nix means "C compiler" and its presence in the system is assumed by practically all build systems. In addition, because of its ridiculously small runtime footprint (which can be in the bytes, not even kilobytes), C is often the only language that can compile executables suitable for running in extremely resource-constrained embedded environments, such as pace-makers, RFID chips, and more. The idea that there is some magical replacement that could somehow make all these applications "safe" because of "reasons" is beyond absurd. And then to have the Biden White House using its megaphone to jump in to an issue that it clearly knows absolutely nothing about is doubly absurd. These are empty talking-points. Even if they passed a law prohibiting the use of C/C++ you know what would happen? Everyone would ignore it, and go on using C/C++ because that's how deeply it is baked into the infrastructure. Even the most extreme Saudi Arabian-style ban on it would just result in developers moving to Mexico and Canada so they can keep earning a living. Nobody's going to stop using these languages, period, case-closed.
Programming in C is like driving stick-shift. You can grind the gears and damage the transmission. So you gotta know what you're doing, and not do that. Programming in high-level languages like Go/Rust is like driving automatic. But this shotgun blast swipe from the White House including both C and C++ -- an entirely different language altogether, despite its hereditary name giving honor to C -- is downright loopy. Even the weirdest professors I had in school who would yammer on about how C is obsolete and people need to stop using it, etc. never had a bad word to say about C++. Why? Because C++ is like an automatic transmission with manual-override. If you don't want to drive manual, leave it in automatic. In C++, you can have it whichever way you want it. So whatever supposed "non-safety" there is in C, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with C++.
This is pure idiocy.
Central-planners gonna central plan. I've been hearing this drumbeat for decades from a certain "crowd" within the universities, etc. "C is obsolete! C is unsafe! C needs to be retired!" Nobody in industry believes this, except for a few brainwashed types.
This is like calling on the auto-industry to stop using threaded screws and bolts because they can loosen, and people scrape their knuckles when using them. As a language (convention), C is baked into the entire *nix structure, meaning, Unix, Linux, BSD, and their variants. The 'cc' command in *nix means "C compiler" and its presence in the system is assumed by practically all build systems. In addition, because of its ridiculously small runtime footprint (which can be in the bytes, not even kilobytes), C is often the only language that can compile executables suitable for running in extremely resource-constrained embedded environments, such as pace-makers, RFID chips, and more. The idea that there is some magical replacement that could somehow make all these applications "safe" because of "reasons" is beyond absurd. And then to have the Biden White House using its megaphone to jump in to an issue that it clearly knows absolutely nothing about is doubly absurd. These are empty talking-points. Even if they passed a law prohibiting the use of C/C++ you know what would happen? Everyone would ignore it, and go on using C/C++ because that's how deeply it is baked into the infrastructure. Even the most extreme Saudi Arabian-style ban on it would just result in developers moving to Mexico and Canada so they can keep earning a living. Nobody's going to stop using these languages, period, case-closed.
Programming in C is like driving stick-shift. You can grind the gears and damage the transmission. So you gotta know what you're doing, and not do that. Programming in high-level languages like Go/Rust is like driving automatic. But this shotgun blast swipe from the White House including both C and C++ -- an entirely different language altogether, despite its hereditary name giving honor to C -- is downright loopy. Even the weirdest professors I had in school who would yammer on about how C is obsolete and people need to stop using it, etc. never had a bad word to say about C++. Why? Because C++ is like an automatic transmission with manual-override. If you don't want to drive manual, leave it in automatic. In C++, you can have it whichever way you want it. So whatever supposed "non-safety" there is in C, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with C++.
This is pure idiocy.
