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0 pointsrustyminnow4y ago0 comments

> If you look at the entire software stack today, drill down (all the turtles), and you will eventually find C (everything goes back to libc or a C/C++ kernel).

I might be nitpicking, but I'm not sure that's necessarily true. You could in theory write a compiler for a new language in C (or even assembly!), and once you have a working language, re-write the compiler in that new language. Now that there is no C code involved in the stack anymore, would that still count as a C-turtle?

Haskell for example, has some "bits" written in C, but a lot is written in Haskell or assembly[1]. So if you look at the WHOLE stack you'll find C _somewhere_ (probably most places), but I don't think _everything_ boils down to C.

Granted, a LOT of stuff is written on top of C.

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23912375/what-language-i...

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throwaway20374y ago

Great point and not a nitpick at all! I hope the next generation of languages is written on top Python, Ruby, C++ (ultra modern), Java, or DotNet/C#. I wish more languages would figure out if they can host in JVM/CLR, which would provide some crazy interactions!

After seeing so much great work done with JavaScript in the form of "transpilers", I think a lot can be done in that area. I feel Zig is a crazy good idea: A brand new language that produces binaries that are 100% compatible with C linkers. If all goes well, in a few years, why would anyone use C over Zig? It seems like the future.

Lots of people think C++ is bat sh-t crazy complex (me too, but I still like the mental gymnastics!). What if there were different C++ dialects supported by transpilers that intentionally restricted features? I think kernel and embedded programmers would the primary audience.

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