Ask HN: Why is C so heavily used/highly ranked?

3 pointsPosibyte3 comments

I was looking at the TIOBE index[1] (which is or is not a good source of language popularity) and langpop[2] and noticed that C has a very high ranking on both of these lists.

Out of general curiosity, where is all of this C code, why is it being produced, and what is the motivation for it?

[1]: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

[2]: http://www.langpop.com/

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A large number of people know how to write C, C compilers are very mature and ubiquitous, C libraries are very mature, portable C code isn't difficult to write, C is good for constrained environments like embedded, for writing drivers, for interfacing with OS routines, etc.

Most of the UNIX ecosystem (*BSDs, Linux, etc) is solely developed using C. In addition to that, most embedded operating systems and real-time applications that require heavy interaction with the hardware use the C programming language because it's versatile and low-level.

Great answer, attheodo. In case "embedded systems" seem obscure, in real terms that means that the chances are good that any of your modern appliances such refrigerators, thermostats, cars, TVs, DVRs, etc. all have microprocessors and run code written in C.

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