On Thu, Aug 08, 2024 at 09:35:50AM -0500, o1bigtenor via Dng wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2024 at 8:52 AM Dan Purgert via Dng <dng@???>
> wrote:
>
> > On Aug 08, 2024, David Billsbrough wrote:
> > > Hello Dan and all,
> > >
> > > Quoting somebody on this mail list:
> > >
> > > > If you're trying to start up a new hobby, and expect to be using these
> > > > tools every weekend; well, you're going to need that set of $40 tools
> > > > when the $5 set breaks / ruins something / whatever. Might as well
> > > > spend the $40 today instead of $5 today and $40 anyway in 2 months.
> > >
> > > [...] Tool prices, etc. comments. [...]
> > > SO anyways ...
> > >
> > > In the virtual (digital) world this **idea** does' NOT also work the
> > > same way at all.
> > >
> > > You can use FREE (beer or speech) software that meets and exceeds some
> > > or most *TOP* dollar software offerings. Well because that just the
> > > way that it is!
> >
> > You completely misunderstood the analogy I'm making...
> >
> > Scenario: OP is fighting with Python a bit in order to use MicroPython
> > (or a variant thereto) to program a microcontroller.
> >
> > I'm telling him that *IF* he's trying to do this as more than a
> > "one-off", he might as well learn C/C++ (via Arduino) now, rather than
> > waiting on it.
> >
> > Python = "Cheap tool" (It'll get the job done, if all you need is this
> > one thing)
> >
> > C/C++ = "Expensive tool" (It'll "hurt the wallet", but you'll have it
> > forever).
> >
> > I wasn't going to bite but you keep insisting so:
>
> Why is C/C++ so absolutely wonderful?

Primarily because C (not C++) has been around for a longer time
than most other tools. Old enough that it was around when Linux got
written and it has become the interlingua for Linux software.

Not because it's a great language.

It was a breath of fresh air in the 1970's, but by now language
technology has advanced a lot since then.

Still, to interface with anything at the level of C, you need
something that will work at that level, be it C or some other
systems language. I would have been happy if Modula 3 had
caught on the way C did, but it didn't.

-- hendrik