[DarkMuse]

So I've been working heavily with C for the last few months and so far I really enjoy it. Yeah, it is a low level language BUT that kind of flexibility gives equal amounts of power and responsibility. Working with memory management could be construed as complicated, but so far it seems simple enough. Pay attention to what you're allocating, and where, and make sure to give it back.

With all that said, what are your favorite parts of C? Or do you prefer a different "low-level" language?

[phyrrus9]

So I've been working heavily with C for the last few months and so far I really enjoy it. Yeah, it is a low level language BUT that kind of flexibility gives equal amounts of power and responsibility. Working with memory management could be construed as complicated, but so far it seems simple enough. Pay attention to what you're allocating, and where, and make sure to give it back.

With all that said, what are your favorite parts of C? Or do you prefer a different "low-level" language?

I love being able to use bit fields, unions, pointers, pointer arithmetic, and just the general ability to be in charge. other programming languages make you their bitch.

And let's not even get started on the fucking mess that is C++ or the useless garbage collector that Java uses

[Drako]

I'm currently "attempting" to learn Python. Although I Havn't really looked into any C based languages as of late.

[DarkMuse]

I'm currently "attempting" to learn Python. Although I Havn't really looked into any C based languages as of late.

I'm also in a python class but its more about software engineering w/ python, so far, it's uncomfortable.

[phyrrus9]

I'm currently "attempting" to learn Python. Although I Havn't really looked into any C based languages as of late.

I'm also in a python class but its more about software engineering w/ python, so far, it's uncomfortable.

that's a weird class to run.... you don't do software engineering with python. python's only use is writing a shitty little fix-it script that you run once and throw away.

[insidious]

My absolute favorite part of C is it's simplicity. The whole language fits into the size of a book you'd expect a small travelers translation book to be.

You have a few basic types, structures, keywords, etc. Yet the language allows so much flexibility. Part of the reason it's been so popular and retained that popularity over the years.

In all these other languages you have BS like interfaces, abstract classes, crazy data structures, and fuckall. All those really do is expand on C. Learning C gives you new insight into all that BS and why they were created in the first place.

[phyrrus9]

My absolute favorite part of C is it's simplicity. The whole language fits into the size of a book you'd expect a small travelers translation book to be.

You have a few basic types, structures, keywords, etc. Yet the language allows so much flexibility. Part of the reason it's been so popular and retained that popularity over the years.

In all these other languages you have BS like interfaces, abstract classes, crazy data structures, and fuckall. All those really do is expand on C. Learning C gives you new insight into all that BS and why they were created in the first place.

And let's not forget casting!
I think C++ is the worst for this, it doesn't get the simple concept that void* is literally a pointer to ANYTHING, and therefore you can cast it to anything IMPLICITLY

[Llebacc]

Favorite part of C? Probably the fact that it's basically a nice, self-contained toolbox. No fussing about with a million frameworks. Of course, the big downside to this is that you have to write so much shit yourself. That part kind of blows. And the fact that it's a simple imperative language with no built in Object Oriented-ness means it's pretty easy to design your program poorly. You can shoot yourself in the foot really hard with C.

Do I prefer a different low-level language? Man, C IS the low-level language. We have others on the scene like Rust, and we can go a step lower to assembly. But nothing tops C. It is the defacto standard for writing systems and low-level code and has been for over 2 decades.

These days I would just use C++ for everything and omit the bits you don't like. It still does what C does, for the most part. You can cast to and from *void, and can micromanage memory, such as creating structs with perfectly aligned bits in memory, aka unions. Say for example you create a structure that you wish to access via bit offsets for speed, you can do that in C++ with a union. It's pretty nice. And when OO design is done properly, C++ code is far easier to scale upwards than C. And you can use the entire C standard library on top of the C++ standard library, which is more than enough to really get some work done.

I started with C, and at my current job I'm writing C++. It was worth it learning C, but certain problems are simply easier and more efficient to solve in more abstract and higher level languages. The nice thing about C++, though, is that you don't have to sacrifice low-level control if you need it.

[Pikami]

My favorite part about C is that it runs on everything, from PC to phones to routers and other small devices

[Inori]

Like @insidious I like C for its simplicity. Nothing is abstracted, there are only a few pretty simple rules to follow, and it's difficult to fuck everything up if you pay attention to what you're doing. On the other hand, strings are a bit of a bitch to work with (coming from a functional/OO background), but it's manageable.