Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> Oh, I have a far bigger "problem" than that: C is the number one 
> >> language requested in job adverts. :-(
> > 
> >   I feel your pain because I hate C (but for different reasons than you).

> It's very popular for "kernel-level development" for some reason.

  C is popular for kernels and device drivers because the machine code
a C compiler generates is simple, straightforward and predictable. After
all, C is a rather thin wrapper around assembly. Also things like type name
mangling in C object files is relatively simple and de-facto standardized,
which makes it easier to write dynamic code loaders and such.

  Kernel development is almost as close to hardware programming as possible,
so the farther away from hardware-level programming you get, the more problems
you may encounter when things don't work as they should. Also many things
designed to aid in high-level programming, such as garbage collection, may
only get in the way in such low-level programming as an OS kernel or a device
driver.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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