Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Official list of top C annoyances
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 03:59:22 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <86zewdq5bp.fsf@linuxsc.com>
References: <117jqq0$2dd4g$1@dont-email.me> <117mc7o$38uh5$1@dont-email.me> <117meeo$35hat$2@dont-email.me> <117mlie$3co6q$1@dont-email.me> <117nj9s$36as3$2@paganini.bofh.team> <117osjv$4ti6$1@dont-email.me> <117qehd$3mtn3$1@paganini.bofh.team> <117s7is$1ccug$1@dont-email.me> <1186rjq$1373h$1@paganini.bofh.team> <1187g0t$13f0g$1@dont-email.me> <11888ed$1aofv$1@paganini.bofh.team> <1189t61$1v7ec$1@dont-email.me> <118a84o$1jddh$1@paganini.bofh.team> <118b6k8$2bl0q$1@dont-email.me> <118bm6n$1lt6m$1@paganini.bofh.team> <119v17t$ekf9$3@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:59:23 +0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="3382761"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX184DGj/6al4d1mxZ6vpzpSFyOOJwrWXOZM="; posting-host="6aa7975ca949d05eced06ab246205481"
User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:opVpUREAd0wKJk6X3lW90aspeCg= sha1:gA3mDichWd1Svk3uzYkOuVv0rkw= sha256:11mSRK+rpV51synC5DrMR7SB3C4dDvpJXBLcW9ojctw= sha1:2ngodNvIbfT5TmXC4MWEPJpLfz0= sha256:ODP3qv1BpTBBIaEbeKKdSmlsX9L4vupn0rUMcEFoXJA=
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:403210

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

> On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:54:17 -0000 (UTC), Waldek Hebisch wrote:
>
>> OTOH I would guesstimate that language features increase
>> productivity by 50% or more.
>
> Fred Brooks analyzed the software-development productivity trend in
> his "No Silver Bullet" essay of 1986.  This was included in the
> 20th Anniversary Edition of his famous ?Mythical Man-Month?  book,
> released in 1995.
>
> Basically, there had been an order-of-magnitude improvement in the
> productivity of software developers in the decade from 1975, after
> the publication of the first edition of the book. [...]

The was some improvement, but nowhere near an order of magnitude,
unless you mean a base a lot closer to 2 than to 10.  Nor did
Brooks's essay make any such claim.