Why learn C? - Hackdot

Re:Why learn C? by tosseraccount on Thursday June 28, 2012 @10:14AM (#4171752)

Well. Think about it. Probably 95% of the instructions executed on your computer were generated by a C compiler or inlined withing a C program. Check out how many of your programs are linked to a standard or special C library. Perl, bash, Python etc. are written in C. Most libraries are written in C.Throw in what's basically C programming in Objective C and C++ and we're closer to 99%

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Re:Why learn C? by Apocryphon on Thursday June 28, 2012 @12:31PM (#4172463)

If C++ counts, does Java/C# count as well? If so then we'd definitely hit around 99%

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Re:Why learn C? by tosseraccount on Thursday June 28, 2012 @04:06PM (#4173638)

No. C++ is a superset of C. You can write C and jam it into a C++ program. This happens often enough in C++ programs. Java absolutely does count. The Sun JVM was written in C !!! So, yes, every java program is executing instructions generated by a C program.

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Re:Why learn C? by kqr2 on Thursday June 28, 2012 @04:25PM (#4173729)

Some JVMs are actually self-hosting:

http://jikesrvm.org/

  A distinguishing characteristic of Jikes RVM is that it is 
  implemented in the Java™ programming language and is 
  self-hosted i.e., its Java code runs on itself without 
  requiring a second virtual machine. Most other virtual 
  machines for the Java platform are written in native code 
  (typically, C or C++). A Java implementation provides ease 
  of portability, and a seamless integration of virtual 
  machine and application resources such as objects, threads, 
  and operating-system interfaces.

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