C is literally "high level assembly" and therefore lacks any guard rails you'd expect in a programming language. It's just unfortunate that so many software developers embraced C for its speed, even when it wasn't strictly needed.

I always remind people that C is a systems programming language and not fit for regular application programming. For that you need an application programming language like Pascal or Java.

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inigyou 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

C should be considered powerful, more than fast. Part of that power is that it doesn't try to stop you from going so fast it's unsafe. But that's just one way you can choose to use your power.

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sitzkrieg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

yea, we certainly wouldn’t want regular user applications to run fast or respect user resources. can’t have that

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Dylan16807 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Even if that was the tradeoff, your average C/C++ program isn't notably fast or lean.

	▲	uecker 20 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The C programs I use daily are generally very fast, very lean and very stable: Programs such as linux, terminals, shells, vim, etc.

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krior an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

false dichtonomy

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hn_submit an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I, for one, can't see any speed difference between a program written in Pascal (Total Commander, which I use every day) and one written in C++ (Windows Explorer).

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asdff 38 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You can’t compare apples to elephants here.

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leptons 32 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

File browsers are probably the worst example you could use here. The actual file manipulations are handled by the OS. The rest of it is just displaying lists of files, so no real speed difference would be noticed in different languages/programs. Most of the time the file browser is just sitting there waiting for user interaction.

The programs that do benefit from speed aren't file browsers.

	▲	Alpha3031 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There are a lot of applications like that though, only they're all being rewritten for electron.

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emilfihlman an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

>therefore lacks any guard rails you'd expect in a programming language

This is simply not true. Guardrails are enforced by the compiler, and both gcc and clang have a myriad of flags to make C safe, not to mention Fil-C.