C Is Not a Low-level Language. Your computer is not a fast PDP-11. (queue.acm.org)

submitted 2 years ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/programming@lemmy.ml

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[-] stanka@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Interesting, if old, article.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

It was published a while back, but everything it talks about still very much applies today.

[-] JoYo@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Imagining a Non-C Processor

Oh OK, I like this song.

[-] JoYo@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

All this argument does is bump up ASM to a low-level language.

I get the resistance in calling C low level but we aren't about to mistake C runtimes for a JIT.

LLVM certainly makes the comparison easier.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

That's not what the article is saying though. It's arguing that the memory model that imperative languages assume is not actually how modern chips work. What we end up with effectively is a VM on the chip that pretends to be a really fast PDP-11 style architecture. Writing assembly against this VM still has the same problem. Interestingly, the way modern chips are designed actually fits better with functional style that doesn't rely on global state.