THE CODE ISSUE 9

Duda Owner IONOS • July 10, 2015

Here is another one of my favorite quotes from the special double issue of Bloomberg Businessweek on computer coding. This one reminds us that although hundreds or even thousands of programming languages exist, perhaps not all are created equal (Paul Ford, “The Code Issue”, 6/15/15–6/28/15, pp. 48, 50):

“ C is a simple language, simple like a shotgun that can blow off your foot. It allows you to manage every last part of a computer—the memory, files, a hard drive—which is great if you’re meticulous and dangerous if you’re sloppy. Software made in C is known for being fast. When you compile C, it doesn’t simply become a bunch of machine language in one go; there are many steps to making it really, ridiculously fast. These are called optimizations, and they are to programming what loopholes are to taxes. Think of C as sort of a plain-spoken grandfather who grew up trapping beavers and served in several wars but can still do 50 pullups. ”

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