Most of what makes the C program bigger comes from the fact that the C program does more. Your python example doesn't call pledge(). Remove that from the C program and it drops to one include, one conditional, and two loops. Further, counting the two loops against C doesn't make any sense: it's entirely up to the programmer whether to have a conditional containing two loops, or a loop containing a conditional. Both languages could naturally do it either way.
> The python example has a single include, conditional, and loop.
... and python. Don't forget to count python.
Re:How is GNU `yes` so fast?
by BenjiWiebe on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @02:49PM
(#14555009)
Exactly. That's the reason I write stuff in C instead of my favorite interpreted language, Ruby. When you write something in C, that's it. No large interpreter plus runtime needed.
For readability purpose it is easier to go through each lines of the python program than the OpenBSD C code. Its not massively different, but its distinguishable enough that I would choose the python version if I wanted to maximize readability, minimize syntax requirement and did not want to use shell script.
The Shell function is in my view the superior choice if the audience is a programmer than know the shell script syntax. It is just a single loop and is written in the environment that the program is intended to be used in. The only drawback there is the speed.