C was a great low-level language - for the PDP-11 [LWN.net]

C was a great low-level language - for the PDP-11

Posted Feb 12, 2021 12:17 UTC (Fri) by pizza (subscriber, #46)
In reply to: C was a great low-level language - for the PDP-11 by sdalley
Parent article: Python cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo

The reasons compilers are so re-writingly complex is the same reason that modern CPUs are so re-writingly complex: squeezing every last drop of performance out of _existing_ code.

After the top-line price, raw performance is the only thing that folks actually care about.

(Granted, the tide has begun to shift slightly in favor of "security", but given the choice, folks will choose "faster" over "more secure"... every. single. time.)

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C was a great low-level language - for the PDP-11

Posted Feb 12, 2021 17:35 UTC (Fri) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

The reasons compilers are so re-writingly complex is the same reason that modern CPUs are so re-writingly complex: squeezing every last drop of performance out of _existing_ code.

Also, humans have a better chance of writing working (let alone efficient) code if they don't need to think about “vectors, co-processors, threads, segments, references and caches as first-class objects”. We have compilers so we don't need to worry about all of those (the vast majority of us who aren't working on actual compilers, anyway).

C was a great low-level language - for the PDP-11

Posted Feb 12, 2021 22:08 UTC (Fri) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

For the PDP-11, C provided an outstanding trade-off: user-friendly programming concepts that mapped really well to the hardware.

While these concepts don't map with the hardware anymore, they stayed familiar and their programmer-friendliness has indeed not regressed. But it hasn't progressed either.

It is a very sad vicious circle to see that programming concepts and hardware keep meeting in a place that does not exist any more. Something like "retpoline" is the absolute irony: still meeting the hardware in that old, fictional place BUT with the knowledge of what hardware really does behind the scenes AND the intention to defeat that! Multiple layers of masquerading; what a carnival.

It's fantastic to see that a new crop of programming languages are at least trying to evolve a bit.

http://worrydream.com/#!/TheFutureOfProgramming (Bret Victor)