Comment Re:C is primordial (Score 1) 641
C is close to machine language because every basic operation except a function call results in simple, brief, and concise machine language code. "c=a+b;" results in only a few instructions. And except when you're calling functions whose internals you haven't investigated, everything else is like that.
C is a high level language in that it masks the repetitive assembly language constructs to do those basic functions, but it still only provides basic constructs which are directly tied to what the hardware itself does.
By comparison, perl has a basic construct: "$myhash{"stuff"}=5;" This complex operation under the hood is masked by the simple language construct. It is far away from assembly language.
By comparison, C++ has a basic construct: "cout << "stuff";" While not as egregious as perl, this simple language construct masks function calls and loops under the hood.
In C, simple constructs in the language always result in comparably simple machine level code with comparably short running times. That's what is meant when folks say that C is close to machine language.