This is true for most languages though, compare C# 14 with C# 1.0, Java 25 with Java 1.0, C 23 (plus common compiler extensions) with K&R C,....

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deaddodo 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

C hasn’t changed all that much, and someone who coded in C99 would take about 30mins to catch up to a modern C23 codebase’s changes. Famously so, as conservatism to change is the main friction in the community for about two decades now.

If you pull out examples of the earliest C, sure, it looks weird. But that C was already obsolete in 1989. Since then, it’s had a minor iteration (e.g. five-eight additions/modifications) every decade-ish (99, 11, 17, 23). Has it changed? Sure. Can it be compared to the iteration and speed of things like C#, Java, C++, etc? No way.

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nicoburns a few seconds ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, but all that means is that no C codebase is readable. Sure, you can understand it if you go line by line, but the code density is so low that it makes it very hard to see the forest for the trees.

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pjmlp an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I am quite sure many people would fail Pub Quizzes related to C, when taking into account the whole language alongside compiler extensions, regardless of the compiler.

	▲	deaddodo 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		To learn all of the common GCC and MSVC extensions would make up a fraction of the language features of C# or Java. You’re really overstating the complexity to make some invalid point. “Actually, one of the most notoriously conservative and simple (in feature set) languages is really super complex and has evolved a ton because it has _Generic and varargs now, and __packed__ exists as a compiler feature.” And to further double down, that minor evolution is over 36 years (arguably a decade longer, but I’m being generous with your argument). Not the 12-16 years (depending which 5 point release you wanna start with) that PHP has morphed into an entirely different language.

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ffsm8 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think he's thinking more along the lines of PHP 5-8.5

That version 1-latest is understandingly highly different, but these are all decades old languages, which barely changed for some time, but are now all introducing new syntax.

Which I think makes sense, but it's obviously going to leave 9-5 devs behind that don't particularly care for coding and want to invest as little time as possible into their language knowledge.

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rytis 2 hours ago | parent [-]

And what exactly 9-5 has to do with caring for coding or time investment in language learning?

	▲	monooso 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Not GP, but I assume the suggestion is that it's difficult to stay abreast of new developments within the constraints of a typical work day. Especially if your job utilises older technologies, as most do.