I cut my teeth on C and later C++. The nice thing about C was that each statement maps to a few machine instructions. This is a nice feature for several reasons:
- You have tighter control over the performance of your own code.
- Apps are generally smaller
Of course, it's harder to organize a program when you have no object-oriented constructs. C++ helps here, but things like tempories and exception-handling add a lot of (time/space) overhead. Java and C# add even more overhead. My biggest concern is that soon we'll have an entire generation of programmers that has no idea (much less cares) what really happens under the hood. I think that it's important for a developer to have a fair understanding of computer systems from top to bottom, and complex, proprietary operating systems, virtual machines and layers and layers of software are only making this harder. What do you guys think? Will the split between those who know what happens under the hood and those who don't widen with these new languages and their virtual machines and complex run-time systems? Does it matter? What about performance? What about efficient use of resources (like it matters anymore)?
