Why C is so Influential - Computerphile

Why is C such an influential language? We asked ardent C fan Professor Brailsford.
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This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscomputer
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. More at www.bradyharan.com

[@HelloMyNamesNino]

C is important because otherwise we’d have to code with omputers.

[@harrisonfackrell]

Don't you mean "ode"?

[@Narc0YT]

Dont you mean: " is important beause otherwise we'd have to ode with omputers.\0"

[@GoldenSpike300]

This comment and subcomments are underrated

[@technowey]

Nino - LOL! Your comment really made me laugh out loud. Thanks.

[@worsethanjoerogan8061]

@alberto sobieski I program in machine code only

[@MrToothgrinder]

Real men move the electrons..by hand.

[@namelessasdf]

real men carve the 0 and 1 in stone and they execute the code in their head

[@adkhansholeh]

That's easy. I got those electrons moving by pushing a button.

[@dannygjk]

You're damn right they do.

[@facusoi]

Real men use finite automatas

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

I raise butterflies

[@stevenliu1377]

Well, you know what they say about the elegance of C: C combines the power and speed of assembly language with the readability and maintainability of assembly language.

[@hursanalimirahmedov6428]

Сирии - е

[@hariangr]

🤣

[@JerkerDahlblom]

Hahahaha

[@martinusher1]

With the possible exception of Forth (once dubbed "the world's first write-only language") all languages make readable programs if the programs are well structured. Like the man says, its horses for courses -- most of my work has been in 'C' but that's because of the nature of the work that I do. Most experienced programmers can work in a number of languages, they use the one most suitable for their work (or, more often, manadated by management). What distinguishes 'C' is that its used to write not just operating system components but many of the tools used by programmers, including the compilers and interpreters that implement other languages. 'C' is relatively unique in that it compiles its own compiler (which begs the question as to where the first compiler came from and, no, it wan't written in assembler). BTW -- I was only kidding about Forth. Its possible to write readable programs in Forth, just not very easy. (Incidentally, Forth is another language that's defined by itself)(you write Forth in Forth.....)

[@jamesbra4410]

Without all the spaghetti

[@saeedbaig4249]

1970s: "Real men use Assembly!" 2010s: "Real men use C!" At this rate we'll be saying "Real men use Python!" by 2050.

[@ct92404]

Saeed Baig Python isn't a real programming language. It's just a scripting language.

[@lotrbuilders5041]

ct92404 scripting Languages are a subset of programming languages

[@graphics_travelers]

I pay other people to use pre-built programs for me.

[@oussemabouaneni992]

woosh

[@oussemabouaneni992]

I know what a high level language is! The guy is joking. He's saying that even python is too low level for him. He only uses pre-built programs.

[@geoblk3000]

This is a man who can really appreciate the computing power we have today.

[@jbzaddy1980]

Ok boomer

[@fullmetaltheorist]

Avarage overcloking fan vs avarage computer enjoyer.

[@Scratchfan321]

@@fullmetaltheorist Average underclocking fan vs average freezer enjoyer

[@EXHellfire]

real men solder the transistors on the chips themselves and make dedicated computers for each software they need

[@PhilippeLoctaux]

steve wozniak is a real man than!

[@matrixcode5945]

imagine not mining your own metal to develop transistors yourself for every program you make

[@stutavagrippa8690]

What??? Real men use atoms and put them together to create transistors

[@jmw1500]

Also called fpga's..

[@hasan7275]

yes that’s why i’m doing CoE

[@salsamancer]

I'm a programmer (not a computer scientist) and I use C and I even LIKE it. It's like a manual transmission. Sure you can get yourself into trouble, but you have control and wielding it responsibly is satisfying.

[@AllUpOns]

This describes literally every programming language.

[@Stowy]

wait what's the difference between a programmer and a computer scientist?

[@isaaclo7562]

@@Stowy the degree... "comp sci is more theoretical, programmers are more practical."

[@TheStickofWar]

@@Stowy one person did a computer science degree and the other didn't, basically. As for who is better at writing programs and making them efficient is down to the person and what they taught themselves. But in principle you should've learned the theory of how computers work and algorithms that power data structures and data manipulation to solve tasks efficiently at University doing computer science. I am a "Computer Scientist" but because I don't actively keep that knowledge up to scratch (even though I do have it), I do not flaunt the title and just call myself a software developer, because that is basically what I am nowadays.

[@alokbaluni8760]

@@TheStickofWar I am going to complete my Bachelors in computer science. So after that I can call myself computer scientist? Even I would probably be a Junior software developer.

[@furrane]

To explain the different levels of programming languages I like to use the analogy of someone that needs to go from point A to point B : - If you're a regular guy and you just want to go visit a friend, you could call a taxi, you don't have to do anything, he'll bring you to your destination, that's what high level programming languages do. - If you want to go to work everyday, you might want to have your own car, you'll need to know how to operate it but now you have a lot more flexibility. - If you're doing a rally, you need to excel at driving the car and you'll need to tweak the engine and everything under the hood, you have total control but need to spend a lot of time setting everything up. This is low level programming languages. There's not one option better than the other, it just depends on the job you want to do =)

[@huckthatdish]

Though as computing power gets cheaper, services can be scaled at will since we don't need to mess with physical servers, etc, high level languages are generally becoming efficient enough for even most enterprise applications.

[@beneditomartins6421]

ㅜㅡ ㅝㅐㅛ

[@fiftysecondsatfordys8990]

and binary is building the car from complete scratch

[@RusticKey]

@@fiftysecondsatfordys8990 More like assembly/machine language

[@LowestofheDead]

REAL MEN WALK FOR MAXIMUM CONTROL

[@JohnPMiller]

I wrote many games & system utilities in 6502 (and later 8088) assembly language. I still think it's important to understand what's actually running on the CPU (or GPU or TPU). Assembly is no longer my "go-to" language (more like "don't-go-there" language), but it still has a purpose. The best thing about C is its staying power and it's closeness to the hardware. I'm an electrical engineer.

[@derpmarine216]

get Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust Rust

[@RS-ls7mm]

The early computers had assembly language more or less designed for humans to use. The latest processors have gibberish instructions that were optimized for compiling. Some instructions look normal but a lot are obviously designed by a deranged AI. At work all the embedded processors were C or C++, even recently. Just way too many tools and very optimized.

[@bhaskarm632]

Why don't you have label when you said go-to lol

[@EebstertheGreat]

I appreciate the ability of a high level interpreter to give me feedback when the code doesn't compile. Debugging in assembly sounds like self punishment.

[@tanmaypanadi1414]

@@EebstertheGreat I would have just given up before I started learning computer science

[@onijclink]

"the right programming language for the right task" wise words

[@VAXHeadroom]

I program satellite flight control systems for a living. We use C with *lightly* C++ just enough to abstract higher-level behaviors, but there are still some ASM subroutines for when we need to insure the exact order of operations to interact with the hardware. Our software that flew the LCROSS mission used 5% of the 100Mhz RAD750 (PPC core) processor.

[@boiledelephant]

Interesting. What were the advantages for you at the time of using C rather than going more basic? Would the systems have been too time-consuming to write at an assembler level? Was there still an efficiency trade-off in using C instead of doing that?

[@VAXHeadroom]

C compiles to a very predictable behavior in the machine code. Repeatability/determinism is key to embedded systems in general. We need to avoid any dynamic memory allocation at run-time since our systems need to operate for years without rebooting. If we allocate memory, it's generally at boot time and then we hold it indefinitely, but generally it's all statically allocated if possible so we know exactly where it is in memory for dumping/debugging should we ever have to (remotely from space!). It would take 100x as long to write in assembly although it would run probably 5x as fast... Our system is about 120,000 lines of C but that includes data declarations and comments. We count them since we have to maintain them just like actual code.

[@chrisspencer6502]

UnTiedMusicStudio I'm about 30 years late on learning a proggraming language, as I dip in and out of languages, I'm learning one size never fits all.

[@code_explorations]

UnTiedMusicStudio Interesting. Why do you think it would be 5x faster if you wrote it all in assembler?

[@VAXHeadroom]

you can do tricks by hand a compiler would never know to do, like overlapping instructions in a pipeline and hand-timing when to use the results or using multiple registers for partial computations and saving the partial results to be used later. It takes knowing and optimizing the particular architecture whereas a compiler has to handle every architecture. For instance the SPARC has 24 registers, but I've only ever seen the compiler use 4 or 5 of them at once. If you stored up all the partial results and then wrote the results all at once, you can force all the RAM writes to happen in one cache write drastically decreasing the stall time waiting for the write to complete. But you have to know the cache architecture to really take advantage of that...

[@GFmanaic]

Java :«We're gonna ban pointers» Makes everything a pointer

[@satannstuff]

"At the user level"

[@TheMrKeksLp]

They're references not pointers

[@JohnDavidDunlap]

At least I don't get Segfaults anymore.

[@yoowon-hye9270]

Errrrrrnnnkk you're wrong. Java only allows reference variables. No pointers at all.

[@simoncarloze2180]

No pointers in Java.

[@Jauffre-innit]

There's something wonderful about seeing an older generation talking about computing, even when they are still so passionate

[@xhjb4ever]

We need to appreciate how c has been around for around 50 years and is still one of the most popular and best programming languages

[@displayoff]

I love this professor, always a joy to watch.

[@johnpossum556]

He seems well rounded, too. To know that the impact drills at the store are not the kind used in industry is usually overlooked by a fellow of his age.

[@dndboy13]

my initial impression 'tolkien doing his lecture '36 on Beowulf but computers'

[@steezyboi96]

ZOMBIE RITUAL

[@himselfe]

There is the argument however that as hardware gets better, programmers get lazier and software gets slower. Bloat is a terrible thing, and many programmers could do with learning to program within constraints. I absolutely agree with the idea of using the right tool for the job, but that should not be an excuse for doing things badly.

[@mattbleakley7217]

himselfe it's been happening for a while now. Many more programs todat are browser based. Scripting languages are more popular and will perhaps continue to be in the future. Accessible and easy to write, but rarely optimised for performance

[@kawas8190]

Python is constricting.

[@LowestofheDead]

Resources used to be expensive and time cheap, but now they're the other way around. Your boss would rather have it ready now than in a year's time with efficient use of memory and processing power.

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

@@kawas8190 pmsl!

[@JohnDavidDunlap]

@@LowestofheDead This is the name of the game in my line of work. If you say something will be a little slow all they hear is: "The Amazon bill will be slightly higher than I was expecting. *yawn*"

[@jan_harald]

REAL men use hammers for EVERYTHING

[@kyrandm6045]

@Teemo Teemo 😂😂😂

[@ravenofcode8072]

Jeremy Clarkson?

[@SidheKnight]

*tries to eat soup with a hammer*

[@theblancmange1265]

@@AnuragJk The handle...

[@jan_harald]

@xeepromx UNREAL men use **AXES** for everything...

[@wolverine9632]

"Real Men Program In Assembly" I need that t-shirt!

[@hakusansaku8800]

Guess it should be pretty popular around Silicon Valley

[@techadon3648]

bro the the first thing i thought of when he said that... amazing

[@hattrickster33]

And on the back....and then test in production! hehe

[@redblack8766]

I could almost swear I saw this joke as a meme or a t-shirt somewhere already.

[@amihartz]

I code in assembly but I'm also not a man. 🤔

[@kps2642]

It was my first language, i am thank full i learned it, the second language i learned was c++, then java, now i have good understanding of how it all works , thanks to C

[@CalamityX]

Of course C is influential, I thought that would be easy to... C

[@manofculture8666]

My house belongs to you now.

[@tsunghan_yu]

I C what you did there

[@amorestperpe]

This is why you have no friends

[@topdnbass]

Cheeky like of the day

[@EvilSandwich]

I admit as someone that learned how to program on assembly, I actually found high-level languages slightly intimidating at first. I didn't feel comfortable relinquishing the absolute control over the byte and cycle count that assembly gave me. Or knowing exactly what was happening on the data and address pins of the CPU. I neurotically couldn't stand the idea of a black box in my programming. If I couldn't type in a piece of code and see it on an oscilloscope as it was running step by step, I was always worried something was going to go on that I couldn't control. In the end, the convenience and speed of it all won me over. But I still find myself embedding in pure assembly code in my C programming for the sake of optimization from time to time.

[@BreytnerNascimento]

Aren't you losing to LLVM optimizations by trying to optimize manually?

[@MavikBow]

I had the same issue when going from C to Java! Like, I was constantly making more and more objects even for simple tasks but I could never manually free memory from them. It felt so inefficient to do.

[@Petertronic]

Prof. Brailsford is the David Attenborough of computing!

[@TheyRiseBand]

Here we see the modern Brogrammer, in its native environment...

[@johndoe1909]

I still use c on a daily basis. Particularly when dealing with hardware. C is simply put, fantastic! And it's so simple!

[@carldrogo9492]

C is NOT simple FFS.

[@rockytom5889]

@@carldrogo9492 It is simple. No joke. It does what you tell it to do and it does that and that alone. If you want to complicate your and your CPU's life with a language that has abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction, be my guest, but that kind of language is a lot harder to interface with hardware than c.

[@frazebean5117]

​@@carldrogo9492C is simple, but it's not easy. There's a difference

[@happygofishing]

​​@@carldrogo9492simple!=easy. c can be memorised in a day, try that with c++ or rust?

[@esra_erimez]

C is the best abstraction of hardware.

[@Jixejo]

thats what makes sense

[@carldrogo9492]

Best comment on this video!🔥

[@jbuchan12]

When I was starting out, I decided I never wanted to become a programmer. I tried a few languages and was away to stop it all together. Then I fell in love with C.. Changed everything for me.. I'm a happy software developer now. It just made so much sense...

[@azhagurajaallinall126]

Wow .. i started with c/c++ from my highschool subjects,done few basic exercises.. learned Java after highschool/before joining college,lost my will to llearn for few years.. tried to learn more but never deep mastering in exact one.. finished college,still jobless for many reasons and one is "not fully mastering just one" & i am right here at c/c++ Again.. So the thing is,could you tell me how much learned & the way you fall in love with C and please tell us about your story with C *😃 Thank you in adavance 21.08.2022 5:55 pm ist (edited from *)

[@yonderalt2662]

Maybe you "get" procedural programming over OOP?

[@jbuchan12]

@@yonderalt2662 Potentially yes, although i do write OOP most of the time now. I did find it difficult learning classes etc at the beginning. Really not sure.

[@puppergump4117]

@@jbuchan12 I started with C and got sick of the constant supplying a struct pointer to a function and calling init functions all the time. Classes and vectors are what I think would only benefit C and not hurt it.

[@seasong7655]

It's over C. I HAVE THE HIGH LEVEL!

[@EliteTester]

-You underestimate my implementation. -Don't try it C.

[@Alex-dn7jq]

Vala be like

[@katczinsky]

Underrated

[@dorgeshuun]

So Anakin segfaulted ?

[@JoeBonez]

In 1979, I worked with a language called SPL (systems programming language) on the Hewlett-Packard 3000 minicomputers. It was an Algol derived language with an “assemble()” construct to allow in-line assembly. It was tons of fun.

[@carldrogo9492]

Dinosaur detected.

[@256byteram]

"If you don't know what the 'C' programming language is, it is an outgrowth of an earlier language called 'B'. That's all you need to know about 'C'." -- Chris Date on how Oracle is written in C, 10th Australian Computer Conference, 1983. If anyone wants I can link to the video of that keynote address.

[@wesleyneo]

Found it for you. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ-xk5eairKNh6sm37s Thanks for the reference.

[@256byteram]

Yea! They're all very interesting from a historical point of view. Just a shame the tapes are deteriorating.

[@LJdaentertainer]

"If anyone wants I can link to the video of that keynote address." why not just go ahead and post the link if you have it, instead of waiting for someone to ask for it?

[@AtanasovPetar]

LJ so? Every time I hear a guy think he knows better than everyone else, I know he is a dumbass.

[@absalomdraconis]

Guy Maor : OO can be used quite reasonably in embedded systems, especially the more powerful modern ones. The problem was always a mixture of bad compilers, and bad practices (implementing the common FILE as an object is obvious and reasonable; implementing it as a 5 layer deep inheritance chain with full templatization and vitualization is a straight-forward yet horrendous practice). The real reason Torvalds banned C++ from the Linux kernel was not that the language was in any sense bad (it's warts are phenomenal, but that wasn't his reason), it was only because that reduced the propensity towards some truely bad practices.

[@whatsmyname9742]

the only output i get using C . . . . . . segmentation fault (core dumped)

[@Alex-dn7jq]

That's why you don't use things like ***var

[@jamesbra4410]

Error on some line that isn't where the error is at

[@amuslim6649]

You need a debugger lol

[@werren894]

that C error is binary, the translation is : "just don't do program and go apply for burger king employee or something"

[@MyTube4Utoo]

I *love* this channel! This video was great too. Thank You.

[@jpphoton]

It's so nice to watch these gems.

[@JiveDadson]

Assembly language is for wimps!Back in the day, we used to say, "Real men program the paper tape in binary with their belt buckles."

[@rodericklenz5030]

Except it was all women doing that...

[@MattMcIrvin]

They tied onions to their belts, which was the style at the time.

[@matteofalduto766]

C is a high level language. Python: am I a joke to you?

[@HectorVivero]

Python is a mask for C.

[@NeutralEffect]

It is, by definition. It's not very high on the abstraction ladder compared to Python or Haskell, but it's there. If you had to divide all existing programing languages into two groups by characteristic of your choice, you would probably choose the most important one. And that's exactly what computer scientists did. It's hard to disagree that the jump in abstraction level (and portability) from assemblers to high-level languages makes other abstractions look almost insignificant.

[@valdemariv394]

Yes

[@carldrogo9492]

It is by definition a high level language.

[@MyAce8]

I am personally of the opinion that pointers should be available even if they are discouraged

[@borabora739]

Ace shinigami xxxxxxxxxxx

[@MattGriffin1]

I always enjoy videos from Prof. Brailsford, keep up the good work!

[@4F2E4A2E]

What a blessing have you sir on KZbin. Thanks for the wisdom, I truly appreciate.

[@mikeklaene4359]

As an 'old' guy who learned programming in 1969 on a 32K IBM 360 using Assembler, 'C' is the perfect high level language. Like Assembler, 'C' is predicated on the idea that the programmer actually knows that which they are doing. So many languages, starting with COBOL assume that the coder is an idiot and needs to be protected from himself. In the bad old days one of the biggest issues was both the slowness of the processor and that memory was so darn expensive. The first desk top system on which I programmed was the Singer / ICL 1500. It had an 8 bit processor done in TTL, a 256 character CRT that was memory mapped and had a maximum of 16K of semiconductor RAM. This was in 1975 but in some ways it was faster than the first IBM PCs.

[@usurpareltrono]

I see Prof. Brailsford, I click :D Keep 'em coming Computerphile!

[@markyboo]

I could listen to this fellow talk about any topic-computer related or not-for hours.

[@spiderjuice9874]

I like all the 'Professor Brailsford' videos - professor, you must be a great teacher/supervisor I imagine. Greetings from a former chemist fumbling through coding in C!

[@f4614n]

You can't call yourself a programmer unless you master assembler ...well at least in the 50s.

[@Kniffel101]

Well... If you want to write good and especially fast software you'd at least have to be able to read/understand Assembly for debugging, even to this day. ;)

[@satannstuff]

Or the TI-84+ for that matter. Gotta love monopoly induced stagnation.

[@evalsoftserver]

YOU CAN'T CALL YOURSELF A PROGRAMMER TILL YOU MASTER ANALOG AND DIGITAL ELECTRONICS ALONG WITH BOOLEAN LINEAR ALGEBRA AND SET AND FUNCTION THEORY

[@Kniffel101]

TheMedia-Hacker You can't expect to be taken seriously if you write in all CAPS! 😉

[@Ghorda9]

You can't call your self a programmer if java script is your only language.

[@xplinux22]

I personally am a huge fan of C. As difficult and problematic it can be when writing userland software, it's pretty much untouchable when it comes to systems level programming. I wonder what the Professor and the others at Computerphile think about Rust. I'm loving its compatibility with C, and it's ownership model for catching pointer errors at compile time seems extremely fascinating.

[@philippezevenberg1332]

whats rust?

[@DanielQRT]

@@philippezevenberg1332 a relatively new, low-level language with c like syntax

[@rockytom5889]

@@DanielQRT I wouldn't call it low level though, as it does have the ability to do garbage collection on its own, so clearly it abstracts a few things.

[@DanielQRT]

@@rockytom5889 it doesn't have any garbage collection, it frees unused memory through RAII Edit: i don't think i am qualified enough to talk about this so nvm

[@Onychoprion27]

I love C. It's still my go-to for recreational programming.

[@Mephistel]

I really like this video, and I loved the videos with Brian Kernighan. Any chance we could get say, Bjarne Stroustrup to talk about C++, or Guido van Rossum to talk about Python, the history of it, the design goals, etc?

[@nabilelqatib1548]

I could listen to this man for hours.

[@depthhistory]

My experience was that after coding in C for a few years, I started thinking in C. I mean, I would plan out the functions directly in C. I loved it!

[@DJSkunkieButt]

C master race.

[@manofculture8666]

DJSkunkiebutt HTML MASTER RACE!!! **Gets thrown out the building for being a newb**. But on serious note... yeah, C is the shiz 👌

[@jesse291]

As an acutal tip for C programming. By default there is no optimisation done by the compiler. When using gcc you can use flags like "-O1, -O2" and the most extreme "-Ofast" If you actually want your C code to run faster than other languages. Its a typical C thing, it doesnt do anything you don't specify, so you also have to specify it to be fast...

[@nuiben7579]

I prefer Hammurabi's code

[@BisherTello]

Underrated comment

[@captainswing4040]

A for apple B for ball C for speed

[@fritzschnitzmueller3768]

What a great video for us younger guys in their 20‘s trying to understand the evolution of programming languages..learnt quite a lot..thank u sit

[@robideals685]

We need tons of videos from this generation to preserve their knowledge. Once it’s gone it will be gone. 😢

[@griml0gic420]

I'm an EE major and I love C ❤️Probably because it's so utilitarian and close to the hardware

[@beechass4451]

I was trying to code with Python, unfortunately it BIT me

[@bastardtubeuser]

so lucky to have these videos thanks. Brian rules.

[@LightFykki]

I really enjoy listening to this gentleman. His way of speaking and also contributing by historical references (which he lived through mind you, technology history is relatively young) is very intriguing.

[@bangkokmaco]

One huge reason is that The C Programming Language, aka K&R, was probably the best computer book ever written

[@47Mortuus]

Yeah - with a typo in every third sentence in the second edition. "Let is write a program" " We we wrote"

[@RetroRogersLab]

In the mid '80s I programmed embedded Z80 industrial control systems. I used the Cromemco Z80 Macro Assembler to create macro libraries that worked very well for 10 years until the product line was discontinued. There were several real time tasks that required interrupts and I even implemented a round robin task scheduler that used a 10msec timer for task switching. Task switching was accomplished by pushing all the registers on the stack and saving the SP. Next the SP is loaded with the next task's SP, the registers are popped off the stack and finally, returning from the ISR.

"Horses for courses", wow this is the simplest and most accurate way to tell to use the right tool for the task I want THIS on a t-shirt

[@NickEnchev]

I don't click the bell icon often, but when I do, its this channel.

[@DylanMaddocks]

throwback to the days when C was a high level language

[@Jixejo]

its probably still high-level for windows

[@carldrogo9492]

It has NEVER stopped being a high-level language!

[@vishnushankar1702]

Programmer starts using pointers....... segmentation fault

[@ZachRachedi]

This reminded me of some dark times back in Uni..

[@davidmenlo9305]

Mike Meyer That's so true.

[@devilaverage6718]

He should not be proud of the fact, that he fails to understand them.

[@ABaumstumpf]

ON the other side we have people with pre-build datastructures with 1000 entries in a linked hashtable - and then they wonder why it takes so long to look up 15 bits.

[@aggbak1]

I made every mistake I ever could with pointers from when I was 13-15.

[@w6wdh]

A trick we used to optimize C programs, targeted to real time control in an embedded processor, was to try various ways of writing the C code and inspecting the assembly code produced by the C compiler, then choosing the C code and C compiler settings that produced the best assembly code.

[@JoaoPedro-dx6pn]

Today no one use C, everyone says to me "C is hard to learn, and enterprises dont use it." But i LOVE C since my first meeting with it.

[@Olibelus]

Inspiring hearing him talk... so experienced and wise.

[@Max_Flashheart]

Assembler was great for some specific things. C onwards was great. I could use my C Programming Account to change the priority on my Cobol programming account on the mini mainframe. I was finished 30 minutes before the other students... This was in the Mid to late 80's.

[@carldrogo9492]

What do you mean by Account?

[@Max_Flashheart]

@@carldrogo9492 Account = User. The C Programming Course privileges allowed increasing task priority on the Cobol Course Compiling Tasks for a user that was the trick.

[@paulmorissette5863]

Reasonably comprehensive, understandable and gets the job done.

[@commenter4799]

The 1500 downvotes in 2021 are the "You aren't a real programmer unless you do what I do" crowd.

[@jan_harald]

I have the original 2nd edition of "Programming in C" by K&R it is SO awesome, I instantly grew huge appreciation to them...

[@aum6032]

Real men never get into "Segmentation Fault"

[@drewt1822]

C is super tedious, but it’s impact is so great that there was a sequel.

[@BritishBeachcomber]

Languages I've used: Machine Code, Assembler, Macro Assembler, Fortran, COBOL, Algol, Elliott 803 Autocode, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Forth, Java, JavaScript, Python, and several more. The one I keep going back to is C++, the most versatile language ever invented.

[@gast128]

Interesting to know is that Unix was first written in assembly. Only later it was rewritten in C which was crucial for its portability and popularity later on. C is a small language with a few concepts but sufficient to do pretty much anything. It lacks though some handy abstractions so I would always suggest to use C++, in which you can achieve the same performance as C if used correctly.

[@Mrdresden]

In a way I can relate with the end of the video as today I pushed into production a project that has taken 3 months, that reverse engineered a piece of communication software for a medical device we use at the laboratory where I work. That old software was 20 years old, proprietary, and did not run on relatively modern Win operating systems (sadly no Linux support). Try as we might, we were unable to get any help from the manufacturer, since according to them they had lost the source code and documentation years ago. Now, we have a rewrite in Java that is (relatively) system agnostic and we host a copy of our self in case we need to change or upgrade it.

[@gravy7861_]

I could listen to this guy talk all day

[@daviddupoise6443]

My favorite ComputerPhile ever. Not just because it has Ken & Dennis in it - but that helps

[@andremarques721]

C is beautiful

[@SuperNolane]

C++ is ugly

[@SeriousAlexej]

Денис Мирзоев, no arguments? gtfo :)

[@SuperNolane]

It's completely subjective. Go to school.

[@LoyalSol]

All C languages are the devil. :)

[@dipi71]

Whenever I can get away with it, I use Ruby. Whenever I need to be really fast, efficient and close to the metal, and I can get away with it, I use C. Whenever I need assembler, I feel like a real man. :-)

[@l0renzz0]

Do you even C, bro?

[@markusjacobi-piepenbrink9795]

I love listening to Prof. Brailsford!

[@AndyTurfer]

This was very enjoyable to watch.

[@BogdanSerban]

Great explanation! C is great for low level stuff such as microcontrollers, operating systems, drivers and so on. But the development of programming languages over time and the added complexity of computers meant adding layers of abstraction over C to make it easier to program more advanced applications.

[@Jixejo]

but thats fine, no? abstractions, are only that...

[@F.T.L]

Nope, that advanced programs are mostly using C/C++ libraries beneath, they have just ported them in the language for non expert C/C++ programmers to use them. Like threading in java, or opencv - tensorflow in python.

[@AdamFitton]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.... Unless it is going to break in the future and when it does there will be no replacement parts or time to do it.

[@xplinux22]

I've seen this video before, and I decided to enjoy it again just because like listening to Professor Brailsford talk. I wonder if you could make a video about Rust sometime?

[@adithyabhat4770]

I love this channel

[@kfftfuftur]

Just because we are now able to run high level programming languages relatively fast doesn't mean the we now have to port all programme to high level languages so they can run at the same speed as they did 10 years ago, but require better hardware.

[@ShaneTheMathGuy]

His sounds somehow reminds me the professor in the futurama.

[@Bandalorian]

Man the Cobol callout coming up on post-2020, was a fantastic read. Experience seeps out of this man's aura.

[@mnop3438]

i;ve never seen those subtitles. they're great. thanks

[@raisinbiscuit2282]

Because you can't spell computer without it

[@MegaRBN14]

Komputer

[@donsurlylyte]

there is no i in programming, o, wait, there is

[@gloriascientiae7435]

5:55 tbh i love pointers. made me trick and magic whole systems together. (not in a proffesional context tho, so i can afford to make a few mistakes first, must add)

[@DefaultFlame]

This man is amazing. Edit: I have extremely limited experience with programming, mostly limited to games like Shenzhen I/O, TIS-100, and some limited scripting in a few other games, as well as a fascination with youtube channels like The Coding Train and Ben Eater. My, mostly uninformed, opinion is that Assembly is charming in the way you interact so closely with the hardware, while C has the simplicity of a higher level language than Assembly while not limiting your ability to interact with the hardware as much as other high level languages. It gives you the power to do amazing things, as well as allowing you to completely screw yourself over. (I find things like the story of Melvin Kaye absolutely intriguing.)

[@BobMonsen]

Talking about simulators, and how they let legacy software work on more modern computers brings to mind an anecdote. BBN built the first nodes of the arpanet on a honeywell 316 minicomputer. These were called IMPs, or Interface Message Processors. The software was pretty complex, and was written in the assembly language of that system. When the honeywell 316 was no longer being produced, this presented a problem to the engineers at BBN, who wanted to continue to use the software. So, they built their own minicomputer that had loadable 'microcode', which simulated the environment that could run the IMP software. This was a pretty cool idea, and the original internet, which evolved from the arpanet, was basically run on these systems.

[@jamessilva8331]

9:22 OMG He called it saying that companies are still using COBOL! Who would have guessed that it would come back to bite us during COVID19

[@goldwinger5434]

As a programmer/software engineer/systems engineer I've written useful applications in BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, Visual Basic, C, C++, and Assembler. Some languages are easier to write. Some are better for one thing or another. However, once C is mastered, it is the best overall language. I'm not a computer scientist, delving into the theoretical aspects of the application of computers and software. I'm a guy who spent most of his adult life in the trenches creating software.

[@WhatsACreel]

7:05 is sooo important! This guy is great!

[@mwirkk]

In my 60yrs I've found that the best solution for any given situation is usually the simplest one that will do the job. In all my professional technology career I've always championed using the simplest technology for any particular solution delivery.

[@GogiRegion]

C has always been one of my favorite languages, even if there’s usually a better tool for the job. I typically use C++ for bigger projects, though, and occasionally Java (those are the holy trinity of languages to me). I know more languages, but always go back to those. Something about C and C++ just makes me want to program!

[@stefanluginger3682]

Alexis Harper yes. Same for me. I love to use C. Even when I have to program Java and C++.

[@carldrogo9492]

You're the MVP!

[@philippezevenberg1332]

its because once you understand the machine you kinda want to work with it more efficiently

[@sebastianmalton5967]

Can you interview Brian about his thoughts on the Rust language?

[@LordOfNihil]

c was the first language i learned and it does give you a good bit of knowlege about how memory works. a fundamental skill to have if you are going to write software.

[@flow5718]

Loved the professor's analysis. Maybe we should all learn to accept everything for what it is.