I love this stuff…

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | Editorial

While looking up a name in an old IOCCC entry I ran across this:

I love this stuff. The information presented is great. While I know about the stack and use it every time I program I often don’t think about it, which is odd. But maybe in a way it’s fundamental. Is it possible to do high-end programming while thinking about low end operations? I imagine it’s a bit like a car designer trying to improve the driving experience but having the interactions of the pedal as a lever, the valves, the flow of fuel, and the rapid compression and burning of the fuel bouncing around in your head. You’d never think about the fact that the seat is uncomfortable.

My favorite quote is right at the end:

jorendorff: C can do anything 
Indeed it can—which is why, despite their many deep, fundamental problems, C and C++ remain the weapons of choice for operating system and VM designers.

Last minute edit:

Related to this I found another article called Fire and Motion. It’s all about professional software development and it makes an interesting coorelation between Microsofts strategy and war. I see this in my current work place. Our software is developed on .Net because it was easy to get it up and running quickly, but at what cost? Every time M$ posts another philanthropotic update our software breaks. To me, it’s just another reason why knowing C/C++ is where the power is.