[Pyrex] C

[Gerrit Holl]

Hi,

David McNab wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-06-24 at 02:34, Gerrit Holl wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > do I need to know C to use Pyrex?
> > For example, I don't know what "int p[1000]" means.
> 
> If you're a programmer, you will always suffer a sense of helplessness
> and disempowerment until you gain understanding and mastery of C-level
> code.
> 
> The advantage of C is that it's a very straightforward translation into
> the raw machine unstructions for each target machine. Very pure and
> honest language with no mystery or esoteric crap. Another advantage is
> that it's damn fast and compact.

Hm...

> One of the countless brilliant facets of the jewel called Python is its
> respect shown to the programmer, in de-mystifying the interface to C. 
> Yet another area where Python's developers got it right. Compare this to
> the unmitigated torture of VM APIs like Java's JNI, which surely is the
> API From Hell!!
> 
> If you feel aversion to C, all the more reason to put in the effort and
> 'pay your dues'.

It feels as a lot of effort to perform little work.

> There's a great book called 'The C Programming Language' by Brian W
> Kernighan and Dennis M Ritchie. This book, affectionately called the
> 'Bible' by many, makes C very approachable, and introduces its concepts
> in bite-sized chunks, offering revision questions and answers each step
> of the way. What's a few days or weeks of your time, for something that
> will empower you for decades to come?

I did once try to work through 'The C Programming Language' a few years ago.
However, I got stuck at the exercises at the end of the first chapter. They are
very difficult. Perhaps I shouldn't want to complete all exercises before I
allow myself to continue. By the way, now I do remember dat this is an array
in C, although it is some time ago that I read it so I did not really remember
it.

> In conclusion - don't be a victim. You owe it to yourself to know this
> language - even if you don't end up programming in it, just knowing it
> will get you out of no end of scrapes and put you on a much more secure
> foundation as a programmer.

At the moment, Python is the only language I know. I will try to learn
C this summer, even if it's 90% read-only. It can't be bad to do so...

> leave this line intact so your email gets through my junk mail filter

Thanks for this answer!

yours,
Gerrit.

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