In defence of C (was:Re:Anybody else tried FreeBasic (aka fbc)?)

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 05:54:07PM -0400, John Vetterli wrote

> If you find there's a task that's difficult in C you can probably
> find a library to make it easier.  People writing text-processing
> applications aren't sticking to the string primitives.

  FreeBasic is written in C.  So I technically am using a C library when
I use FreeBasic.  Does that make you happy?

> There's also the speed issue: people writing scientific applications
> may want as much speed as possible for massive number-crunching.

  The original mainframe-based BASICs, and MS's GWBASIC and QBASIC were
interpreted byte-code, and accordingly slow.  FreeBasic is a compiled C
program.  It has the speed of a compiled C program.

  Look, I'm not attacking C.  It was designed as a system implementation
language for unix.  It does what it was designed to do, and does it very
well.  Trying to use it beyond its intended purpose is where you run
into problems.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
An infinite number of monkeys pounding away on keyboards will
eventually produce a report showing that Windows is more secure,
and has a lower TCO, than linux.
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