Are you just being snarky, or do you have something more specific to say about something that's choosing C?
Considering that it's been 54 years, and we've yet to find any human being, any at all[1], who can write C without UB, I'd say that writing C in 2026 when there's any other option is basically misconduct and a good case could be made that if the code touches money in any way, then it could be a SOX violation too.
Writing C today is like still writing Cobol. Yes, if you are adding a new type of savings account to your bank, and the rest is in Cobol, then sure write it in Cobol.
Some microcontroller projects may have an ecosystem in C that makes other options harder in practice, but it's still a worthy investment to not use C. There's a reason phone baseband firmwares are moving away from C.
[1] No, not even djb, who people like to bring up.
> Considering that it's been 54 years, and we've yet to find any human being, any at all[1], who can write C without UB
Undefined behavior does not mean that a language is useless. C is quite nice to write as an abstraction over assembly, and I highly recommend writing C code and thinking about (and checking) what assembly it compiles into.
Also, it is possible to verify that the types of UB that you are referring to do not occur: see the seL4 project, which provides machine-checked proofs for an OS kernel that no execution can reach a state that is undefined by the language specification.
> Undefined behavior does not mean that a language is useless.
Never said it was useless. But it's pretty damning that literally nobody can write correct code in the language. And my point is that it's been enough time that it can't be seen as a skill issue.
> C is quite nice to write as an abstraction over assembly, and I highly recommend writing C code and thinking about (and checking) what assembly it compiles into.
Absolutely. I think in order to understand programming you need to be able to write C, and be able to read assembly.
C isn't "high level assembly", with the whole discussion about the spec talking about the abstract machine, but one does not need to be a C language lawyer to be a good programmer.
But to your point about checking the output: That goes for Rust too, and godbolt.org supports Rust too, for this workflow.
So I'm not saying C is useless. But I am saying that if someone were to decide to write their greenfield project in C, then if it plans to have actual users (as opposed to a fun project), then it's basically misconduct.
Cf. Steve Gibson writes his software in assembly, still. Because he enjoys it, and his enjoyment is the primary user. I respect that. But I would NEVER hire someone to write whole applications like that in assembly. Or C.
They aren't being snarky, they're stating a fact. Rust, rounding to the nearest percent, does not exist. It's a trendy language among the Silicon Valley types that HN draws, but 99.9% of the world runs on C/++, OSes written in C/++, and language VMs implemented in C/++. Maybe some day it will change, but hanging around here too much will give you a very skewed idea of how widely adopted it is.
Well, "grownups with important jobs write C" can be taken in two ways. Non-snarky, sure. There are MANY people who write C professionally.
Not as many as there are Python, Java, JS, or C++ programmers. Depending on the survey, C seems to be neck and neck with PHP.
I read the comment the other way, though. The way that says that those other more popular languages are not serious, and NOT for grownups with important jobs.
Are you just being snarky, or do you have something more specific to say about something that's choosing C?
Considering that it's been 54 years, and we've yet to find any human being, any at all[1], who can write C without UB, I'd say that writing C in 2026 when there's any other option is basically misconduct and a good case could be made that if the code touches money in any way, then it could be a SOX violation too.
Writing C today is like still writing Cobol. Yes, if you are adding a new type of savings account to your bank, and the rest is in Cobol, then sure write it in Cobol.
Some microcontroller projects may have an ecosystem in C that makes other options harder in practice, but it's still a worthy investment to not use C. There's a reason phone baseband firmwares are moving away from C.
[1] No, not even djb, who people like to bring up.
> Considering that it's been 54 years, and we've yet to find any human being, any at all[1], who can write C without UB
Undefined behavior does not mean that a language is useless. C is quite nice to write as an abstraction over assembly, and I highly recommend writing C code and thinking about (and checking) what assembly it compiles into.
Also, it is possible to verify that the types of UB that you are referring to do not occur: see the seL4 project, which provides machine-checked proofs for an OS kernel that no execution can reach a state that is undefined by the language specification.
> Undefined behavior does not mean that a language is useless.
Never said it was useless. But it's pretty damning that literally nobody can write correct code in the language. And my point is that it's been enough time that it can't be seen as a skill issue.
> C is quite nice to write as an abstraction over assembly, and I highly recommend writing C code and thinking about (and checking) what assembly it compiles into.
Absolutely. I think in order to understand programming you need to be able to write C, and be able to read assembly.
C isn't "high level assembly", with the whole discussion about the spec talking about the abstract machine, but one does not need to be a C language lawyer to be a good programmer.
But to your point about checking the output: That goes for Rust too, and godbolt.org supports Rust too, for this workflow.
So I'm not saying C is useless. But I am saying that if someone were to decide to write their greenfield project in C, then if it plans to have actual users (as opposed to a fun project), then it's basically misconduct.
Cf. Steve Gibson writes his software in assembly, still. Because he enjoys it, and his enjoyment is the primary user. I respect that. But I would NEVER hire someone to write whole applications like that in assembly. Or C.
> Are you just being snarky,
They aren't being snarky, they're stating a fact. Rust, rounding to the nearest percent, does not exist. It's a trendy language among the Silicon Valley types that HN draws, but 99.9% of the world runs on C/++, OSes written in C/++, and language VMs implemented in C/++. Maybe some day it will change, but hanging around here too much will give you a very skewed idea of how widely adopted it is.
Well, "grownups with important jobs write C" can be taken in two ways. Non-snarky, sure. There are MANY people who write C professionally.
Not as many as there are Python, Java, JS, or C++ programmers. Depending on the survey, C seems to be neck and neck with PHP.
I read the comment the other way, though. The way that says that those other more popular languages are not serious, and NOT for grownups with important jobs.
Edit: actually, Jetbrains 2025 survey has C neck and neck with Rust: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-data-playground/ . Both "below the fold" and less than 10% of Java.
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> who can write C without UB
Sel4?
Grownups with important jobs use at least a few different languages