Hacker News Reader

I moved away from C to Java, then I returned to C. I tried Python several times, but always returned to C.

C is small, with very few hidden 'gotchas', and it works. No wonder I always come back to C. You could call it the WYSIWYG programming language.

View on HN

What are the 'gotchas' that Java has but C does not?

Java is a much larger and more complex language than C. Consequently, it is much more fragile. I was one of the ones who thought Java was the best thing since sliced bread back in the 90s ("Write Once, Use Everywhere"), but I found it it very difficult to work with at times because you had to jump through hoops to get around those complexities.

And that's not including the bastardisation of Java that occurred when Microsoft tried to bring it down by changing many of the classes to something incompatible. I once got into an online discussion of something or other and couldn't work out why the other guy's code and results differed from mine. I then discovered that while I was using Sun's (official) Java, he was using Microsoft's (different) Java.

Don't get me wrong. Java is a good (overall) language but it's just not the simple and fast language that C is. There is the old joke that C makes it easier to shoot yourself in the foot. That is true, but it is also a very versatile and clean language.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com