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About the C programming language

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  About the C programming language aminer <aminer@toto.net> - 2014-06-07 03:07 -0700
    Re: About the C programming language aminer <aminer@toto.net> - 2014-06-07 03:10 -0700

#867 — About the C programming language

"One of my goals in the study of program proof techniques is to assist 
in the design of better programming languages, ones which make it easier 
to write correct programs and harder to write incorrect ones. ...

It is a matter of continuing regret that so few languages have ever been 
designed to meet that goal, or even to make significant concessions 
towards it. For example, the programming language C was designed to 
assist in writing a small single-user operating system (UNIX) for a 
real-time minicomputer (PDP 11), now thankfully obsolete. For this 
purpose, its low level of abstraction and plethora of machine-oriented 
features are entirely appropriate. For all other purposes, they are a 
nuisance. The successful propagation of the language can be explained by 
accidental, commercial, historical, and political factors; it is hardly 
due to any inherent quality as a tool for the reliable creation of 
sophisticated programs. ..." - C. A. R. Hoare, 1994

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#868

Hello,

It was a statement from C. A. R. Hoare (case statement, quicksort fame) 
in "Great Papers in Computer Science", 1996. He wrote a preface in 1994 
to his and Wirth's paper "An Axiomatic Definition of the Programming 
Language Pascal" to put that paper in context.



Thank you,
Amine Moulay Ramdane.

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