:: Re: [DNG] Why C/C++ ?
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Author: dng@d404.nl
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] Why C/C++ ?
On 08-08-2024 16:51, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> 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


For micro controllers you have so many tools nowadays that C/C++ is not
always a necessity any longer. By example for the combination of ESP
based stuff and Home Assistant (home automation) I use ESP home. Works
like magic with yaml based program files and no C/C++ in sight.

Grtz.

Nick