Before confidently predicting the future of software programming languages, please consider the following. There are operating systems written in the C programming language. And those are:
Linux and Windows.
But wait! The foundations of Mac OS familly are also written in C. That means all 3 operating systems most used today. And all their derivatives, like Android. Or iOS. All written in the C programming language.
But why C?
Because C toolkits produce smallest and fastest software. Fully functional and resilient. And easy to maintain. Is that not the primary objective?
C keeps things on the path of the primary objective.
And, hardware interfaces are written in C, too. These include infrastructure, networks, avionics, electronics, satellites, and more.
Appendix
Below is a modern C, circa 2025. For you to peruse.
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/* https://godbolt.org/z/q5Gj54WMa (c) 2025 by dbj@dbj.org Arena memory layout: Arena: [string_t #1][string_t #2][string_t #3] | | | v v v External: buf[] "Hello World" "Partial String" Only the string_t metadata lives in the arena, the actual character data stays wherever it was */ #include <assert.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> // string_t print #define SP(S_) \ fprintf(stdout, "\n%04d : %16s{ %4zu , \"%s\" }", __LINE__, #S_, \ ((S_).len), ((S_).ptr)) #define P(F, X_) fprintf(stdout, "\n%04d : %16s :\t" F, __LINE__, #X_, (X_)) #define SPP(S_) SP((*S_)) // #define dbj_string(s) (string_t) { .ptr = (char*)s, .len = sizeof(s) } typedef struct { char* ptr; size_t len; } string_t; typedef struct { char* buffer; size_t size; size_t used; } Arena; static Arena arena_create(size_t size) { Arena arena = {0}; arena.buffer = calloc(size, sizeof(char)); assert(arena.buffer); arena.size = size; arena.used = 0; return arena; } void* arena_alloc(Arena* arena, size_t size) { size_t aligned = (size + 7) & ~7; if (arena->used + aligned > arena->size) return NULL; void* ptr = arena->buffer + arena->used; arena->used += aligned; return ptr; } void arena_destroy(Arena* arena) { assert(arena); free(arena->buffer); *arena = (Arena){0}; } // Allocate only the string_t struct in arena, ptr points to external memory string_t string2arena(Arena* arena, string_t s) { string_t* str = arena_alloc(arena, sizeof(string_t)); assert(str); return *str = s; // Copy the struct (ptr still points outside arena) } // Allocate the string literal in arena #define literal2arena(arena_ptr, slit) \ string2arena(arena_ptr, \ (string_t){.ptr = (char*)slit, .len = sizeof(slit) - 1}) /*************************************************************************************/ // Iterator callback: return 0 to continue, non-zero to stop typedef int (*arena_visitor_fn)(string_t* str, void* userdata); void arena_walk(Arena* arena, arena_visitor_fn visit, void* userdata) { assert ( arena || visit) ; // Safety check char* pos = arena->buffer; char* end = arena->buffer + arena->used; while (pos < end) { string_t* str = (string_t*)pos; if (visit(str, userdata)) break; // Early exit if visitor returns non-zero pos += ((sizeof(string_t) + 7) & ~7); // Same alignment as arena_alloc } } // Example visitor: print the string arena_visitor_fn print_visitor(string_t* str, void* userdata) { SP(*str); // printf("{ len=%zu, ptr=\"%.*s\" }\n", str->len, (int)str->len, str->ptr); return 0; // Continue } // Example visistor: count strings int count_visitor(string_t* str, void * userdata) { (*(int*)userdata)++; return 0; } /*************************************************************************************/ int main(void) { Arena arena = arena_create(0xFFF); char buf[100] = "String on the static array"; string_t s1 = literal2arena(&arena, "Literal"); // literal to arena (literal2arena(&arena, "Literal in Arena")); // static chat array to arena (literal2arena(&arena, buf)); // string_t to arena (string2arena(&arena, s1)); P("%zu", arena.used); P("%zu", arena.size); arena_walk(&arena, print_visitor, NULL); int count = 0; arena_walk(&arena, count_visitor, &count); printf("\nTotal strings: %d\n", count); arena_destroy(&arena); return 0; } |
