@programming@programming.dev Why is C hidden gold?
Let’s say you decide to learn programming. You have two options. Either use the education system (college or courses) or become self-taught. In the first case, you will learn the programming languages that are imposed on you. The education system (universities, colleges, courses) uses the “modern” development stack. Because what matters to them is what can later bring income to companies and you in life, and taxes to the state. They are part of the system and that’s how it works. Or because they want to get certificates from industry giants and use everything in their implementation - from development tools to ideology. Only a very few colleges and courses specializing in a very narrow field, such as embedded devices, can teach you the C language.
If you choose to learn programming on your own, the first thing you will do is go to the Internet to determine where to start and what you need to learn today. Naturally, you will find there a lot of articles and posts on the topic of “what programming language to learn in X year”. And they will contain a detailed or not very detailed comparison of “modern” languages. But you are unlikely to find the C language among them. Moreover, almost all of these languages will have the intention of being “C replacements”. Naturally, you will choose a new, powerful, and promising language that will replace the “dying C”, while you “look to the future”. You will never find phrases like “Rust is a replacement for Zig” or vice versa, they will all be “replacements for C”. And by doing this they are trying to hide the C language.
We have seen why the C programming language is hidden.
But suddenly one wonderful day you came across a post with the words “give C language a try”, or, if you are over 40, you remembered where you started learning programming as a child before you started writing all this “SaaS garbage”. And you thought “well, okay, what if there is something, here is nothing to lose anyway”. And you started learning C, simultaneously integrating into the C community. And then you discover, to your surprise, that the C language is simple and effective, applicable everywhere, and continues to develop. And the community is kind, not pompous, without hype, and buzzing with interesting projects. You realized that the C language is not dying and is not going to die, as the “gurus” on youtube taught you and representatives of the “modern” language communities argued with foam at the mouth. And that it is unlikely that C will be able to replace anything in the near future. It’s as if you have found “your home” again, something you have been looking for a long time, but could not express in words. You have returned to the roots.
And this is why the C language is gold.
Look for your “gold”, never give up. When you find it, you will know for sure that this is it. Thanks for reading!
And then, because you were never in a classroom and never took a class on security, you probably have no idea what a buffer overflow attack is or how to use tools like valgrind to check for them.
Then you put your C code on the internet and get your server pwned inside of an hour.
Slightly hyperbolic? Yes definitely. But there is a reason we don’t teach C to beginners anymore. Generally you want them to understand the mindset of coding before throwing them in the deep end. And I would bet nothing has caused more people to quit programming then
Segmentation fault: core dumpedI hate to admit this… But, I am a CS grad from a good US university and my CS program never taught us how to use tools like valgrind either. Our projects were graded entirely based on if they worked and how neat the code looked at a glance.
That’s not a confession, it’s a condemnation. It’s not your fault that universities generally don’t teach this stuff. (I think I had one lab session wherein we used valgrind.)
I do believe there is value in understanding the fundamentals of how the computer executes code by learning C as it is a nice balance without going to the level of Assembly. I don’t think I would be as good of a programmer as I am today without having learnt C as my first language but the way the school teaches it is important.
That said, that’s in the context of a role of a software engineer with a CS degree, if you’re just a regular developer writing web apps or plan on only ever using frameworks then yea, you probably don’t need that kind of knowledge. Even then, I’d argue knowing these details would help you resolve issues with the framework if you ever encounter them.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use C to make products but it certainly is useful to get a feel of how it works.
You are right I have never took a class on security and I am not security development specialist, so from your point it is reasonable.