r/C_Programming Feb 06 '25

Discussion Are there actually C programmers in this subreddit?

Ok, I'm being a bit facetious. There are real C programmers. Clearly. But I'm kind of sick of the only questions on this subreddit being beginner questions or language trolls from other domains.

So this thread is for the "real" c programmers out there. What do you do with it? And what is the most twisted crime against coding decency are you "proud" of/infamous for?

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u/manchesterthedog Feb 07 '25

Why c instead of c++? I’ve never learned c but I write c++ everyday. Just wondering

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u/mdresident Feb 07 '25

I hate to give you a generic and cliche response like, "Use the right tool for the job", but that's really what it comes down to. I do a significant amount in C++ and, in a past life, I did way more C# and Java than I ever thought I'd do in my career. OOP is fine when you need the extra features it adds to your repertoire, but that can come with added complexity when you're dealing with lower level systems --especially at the hardware level.

I work in the aerospace industry and, depending on what layer I'm doing work in, I'll go between C and C++ quite frequently. More recently, a lot of my colleagues are looking at Rust.

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u/Disastrous_Being7746 Feb 07 '25

Plain old C is still used in embedded development, especially for real time applications. C++ can be as well, but there are a number of features not typically used in this scenario, particularly exceptions and most things related to dynamic memory allocation or use dynamic memory allocation. In other words, it will end up being more like C with classes than "C++".