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Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 04:28:39 +1100
Subject: Re: Experiences/guidance on teaching Python as a first programming language
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Cc: "python-list@python.org" <python-list@python.org>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:62411

On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 4:12 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> But why is so much non-performance critical code written in C? Why so
> many user-space applications?

Very good question! I don't have an answer. There are a few
"maybe-answers", but they mostly come down to "programmer didn't know
of a viable alternative". When I wrote RosMud, I wrote it in C++,
because I was making tweaks to an existing C++ program (Gmud) and
because I thought that that was the way to make it run fast enough for
what I needed. Seven years on (or will be, come January), I've learned
how much can be done in Python, Pike, and other high level languages,
and RosMud's successor is not written in C.

Maybe part of the answer comes from people who've learned based on old
hardware. Growing up in the 80s on an Epson XT-clone, I wrote code in
BASIC, C, and assembly. Now, most of my performance problems in BASIC
were because of flawed algorithms (it's amazing how slowly an O(n*n)
algorithm will run, isn't it!), but I could imagine someone growing up
learning "C is the only way to make code run fast" and then going on
to teach the next generation of programmers to use C, without
necessarily even explaining why.

But that's just speculation. All I know is, even if you do need to
write in C for some reason (your preferred language doesn't have
bindings for some library, maybe), chances are you can write the
tiniest bit of code that way, and do the rest in a high level
language.

ChrisA