Re: Whaddaya think?

On 18.06.2024 01:15, Keith Thompson wrote:

Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> writes:

You've mentioned several things you have no idea about.

(I have mainly no idea about the detailed differences of
the "C" standard evolution.) I explicitly stated that to
make clear about that, since what's valid in "std X" (or
in legacy systems) may be void in "std Y".

Are you interested in learning?

I think you are unnecessarily provocative, but I'm honestly
answering your question...

It depends. - Generally, I'm constantly learning of course
(there's no "off"-switch).

Concerning current "C"? - Clearly not in detailed changes.
(I'm aware that the density of folks here that has every C
standard version present and probably even considers the
latest version as a bible (sort of) is high. That's fine.
But I'm not a [religious (sort of)] follower.)

"C" was never (thus still isn't) my "language of choice".
I programmed already in a couple other (better) languages
when I stumbled across C (in the 1980's. It has never been
a paragon of a "good" programming language to me. (YMMV)

In practice I switched _very early_ (as soon as it was
available) to C++, mainly because of the OO concepts that
I already knew from and used with Simula. The unreliable
"C" base of that language was still a nuisance. (It's not
surprising that "C" has later evolved in important parts.
But that ship has sailed [for me; maybe also more widely].)

I'm still (academically) interested in several questions
concerning the C programming language. That's one reason
why I'm raising or discussing topics here. It's private
interest. (It should be a clear indication of learning.)

[...]

(I skip the part of your post that I just answered in a
reply to James.)

[...]
 

Whatever current C standards - and I'm not sure what ancient
'cc' is on my system and to what standard it complies - say,

 
Perhaps you should find out what your ancient "cc" does.  What OS
are you on?  Does "cc --version", "cc -V", or "man cc" give you
any meaningful information?

I'm on an (old) Unix system. The version of my GNU 'cc' is
usually not important for the things I'm doing. I've just
once (in the past year) used a '-std=...' switch to have
some specific behavior guaranteed or a feature available.
(I cannot use features of newer standard, year 2000+, but
that's unimportant for the things I'm using that language.)

Professionally I used C only in the late 1980's for a short
period of time.

Frankly, professionally I do other things than programming
[in C or else] these days.

Given my age, and in the light of what I outlined above,
don't expect to convince me with "expert details" of C,
specifically newer C standards. (I'm sure they are very
important for younger folks that [want/have to] use C in
their professional context.)

Quite some folks here seem to be of similar age than me;
I'm astonished there's so much eagerness concerning the
"C" language. :-)

[...]

Janis