8 replies to this topic

[justanothernoob]

Hey, I started programming about a year ago. I love it and it's definitely what I want to do as my career. The language I use most and my favorite language is C#. I know the basics of java and unfortunately some visual basic.

I have messed around with c++ but never really did anything serious. I know it is a pretty important language. I have heard some say it is being phased out, but others say it will be here for a long time. I definitely plan to learn it though.

I am not sure, however, if I should invest a lot of time in learning C. To me it seems really hard. When anyone says they have programmed in C in the past, or they legit know C, I have instant respect. I can't even imagine a non-object oriented language. Basically what I want to know is, is C really as scary as I picture it to be? Will learning it really be beneficial, if I can learn it?
I know C is a very important language and I'm sure it would be really interesting, but is the amount of time I would have to invest to learn the basics be worth it?

Thanks

[Microsuck]

Hellyeah, C is worth learning! I recently started learning it, and I love it!

Once you learn C, learning most other similar languages is fairly easy.

[Vaielab]

A lot of langage are based on C, or at least inspired by C.
Plus learning C will teach you a little bit more how your computer work... so it is worth learning C

[Alexander]

People think differently. You can often write processor instructions and C synonymously, you know what things do. Object oriented languages are powerful, with the disadvantage of adding more context to otherwise simple statements. You are at the mercy of the development of the implementation, and not the system. I find these languages sugary, when I just want something simple done.

[Tech2Nine]

Hi All,

I am trying to get some information regarding creating a script to convert email address to an MD5 hash and then cross referencing it with a list of pre-converted MD5 hashes to remove duplicates. I have a list of over a million items, so I cannot use Excel to do this and need to get some help with creating a script (I have never done any programming, nor script writing). Please help!!

[Aventinus_]

Even if you don't do anything with C I believe that is a language you must learn at least to read and understand.

[WingedPanther]

C is very useful for creating libraries, and system programming. It can be cumbersome for higher-level programming where you care more about getting code working quickly, than every item of optimization. C also makes it really easy to write really bad code :)

[RhetoricalRuvim]

WingedPanther said:

C also makes it really easy to write really bad code :)

'really bad code' as in code that needs debugging, or "bad boy" code?

* * *

C is not that bad. You just need to be able to be technical. C is also similar to other languages (or the other way around :) ), such as PHP and JavaScript (and C++, but without the object-oriented part of it).

The 'if' statements are the same, the 'while' loops, the 'for' loops, a lot of other keywords. C++ is based on C in that context. Also, it might be easier for you to learn assembly language if you learn C (not that you want to write an operating system or anything, but still :D ).

[WingedPanther]

C is the language most buffer overrun vulnerabilities are written in :)