[Coco] What version the of C programing is most used?

[Steven Hirsch]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2011, Andrew wrote:

> But ultimately, my best advice is to try to steer clear of learning 
> technologies (ie, a specific programming language), and instead learn the 
> what's, why's and structures of programming in general (it also helps to 
> learn about the history of computing, but it isn't required); by learning 
> these general concepts, you build a skillset that allows you to understand 
> and learn nearly any language out there - at least the ones that matter for 
> career pursuits...

Amen.  With a decent grounding in computer science basics, all 
Turing-complete languages start to look the same.  There's a reason why 
many top universities use obscure languages like Scheme or LISP to teach 
introductory programming.  By pushing outside of the comfort zone, you're 
forced to see more of the "big picture".

Back in the practical world, the choice of language is going to be driven 
by your field of interest.  I appreciate that Java and C# have their 
strong points and supporters, but in my day-to-day world (VLSI design 
verification) they are complete non-starters.  Even with today's hardware 
and compilers, you are not going to effectively operate on 200GB of 
in-memory layout data (average for a contemporary processor design) unless 
you code near the metal.  Even then you must understand the ramifications 
of design decisions. Example: Use of virtual classes to model high-volume 
objects.  The C++ vtable adds one pointer to the size of every object. 
Multiply by ten billion and pretty soon you're using some real memory.

Steve


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