C or C++

pauldonnelly · 2009-04-11 23:01:25

pauldonnelly wrote:

Xilon wrote:
Static typing is better than dynamic typing. If a language has static typing you can still do dynamic typing (in most cases), but not the other way around.
So what? Dynamically typed languages let me do dynamic typing in all cases, without hacking around the language. Therefore they are better.

Quoting myself.

I should add that I'm being facetious here. I don't really think that dynamic languages are better for everyone, but they are better for me, for good reasons.

aport · 2009-04-13 06:22:45

C is simple and fast.

Objects are for chumps. It's all about data structures.

Wra!th · 2009-04-13 07:43:24

wuischke wrote:

(I'm lazy, as all programmers should be.)

If that were the case we'd still be using 2.4.* kernels
I vote C all the way

Last edited by Wra!th (2009-04-13 07:43:45)

wuischke · 2009-04-13 08:22:45

Lazy in this sense doesn't mean not wanting to work, but working efficiently by avoiding unnecessary work if possible. This includes for instance garbage collection (and consequently people improving the quality of GC), languages with a concise, logical syntax and using the right tool for the right job.

I wrote a verb conjugation engine (i.e. an interpreter for a conjugation language) including a web server in C - it was properly abstracted, used nice data structures and included multi-platform support. And there are even bigger projects out there using C, no doubt it's possible to create big and good applications in C.

But: I would never chose C for a bigger project I start from scratch. I have to repeat myself very often, I have to think about memory management instead of working on solving the actual problem and I have countless possibilities to create obscure problems. It takes just too much time to get all these things right - I could have solved the same problem in a language like Python in a fraction of the time and when I encounter bad performance I could still have written the critical parts in C and the speed would be similar in the end.

delor · 2009-04-13 18:25:16

Choose right tool for the job.

Xilon · 2009-04-22 06:27:17

pauldonnelly wrote:

You need to accept that a preference for static typing vs. dynamic is a dispositional thing rather than an absolute better/worse relation. Some people have a massive hardon for compiler-checked type-correctness, and that's fine, but not everyone enjoys bondage play.

Indeed. When I said it's better, I didn't mean that it's a better language overall and everyone should use statically typed languages. I meant that a statically typed language can be flexible enough to allow for dynamic typing, and therefor provide the best of both worlds. It's funny though, how this flexibility is rarely used in such languages. Even though you can dynamically type, the code is usually statically typed anyway.

aport wrote:

C is simple and fast.
Objects are for chumps. It's all about data structures.

Funny. Objects are just data structures with associated functions.

Last edited by Xilon (2009-04-22 06:29:10)

Zeist · 2009-04-22 07:09:00

I don't get the whole C or C++. I think they both have their uses, and they are both quite similar.

I never bothered with replying to the original post in this thread since the answer would be the same as: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 68#p509168

Cerebral · 2009-04-22 13:25:44

OK, this is getting silly - we have two threads with the exact same name with very similar content. I wish I had a topic-merge function.

Further posts on the subject go here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=66692

Locked.

Arch Linux

#26 2009-04-11 23:01:25

Re: C or C++

#27 2009-04-13 06:22:45

Re: C or C++

#28 2009-04-13 07:43:24

Re: C or C++

#29 2009-04-13 08:22:45

Re: C or C++

#30 2009-04-13 18:25:16

Re: C or C++

#31 2009-04-22 06:27:17

Re: C or C++

#32 2009-04-22 07:09:00

Re: C or C++

#33 2009-04-22 13:25:44

Re: C or C++

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