Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The most important language of yesterday was C. Of today, still C. Of tomorrow, Go... hahaha no, the answer is still C.

If you really wanted to determine 'most important', think about what software you'd be left with if all software and dependencies written in a language was taken away.

Take away JS and a bunch of webapps don't run. Take away C and you have no OS, no web servers, no languages whose leading implementations don't bootstrap themselves, no TomToms telling you how to get to JSconf, and so on.

I do understand the renewed hype behind Javascript, but to enshrine it as most important -- talk about hyperbole and a lack of perspective.

PS: That V8 engine you'd be relying on for your JS -- it's not written in Javascript either.



> PS: That V8 engine you'd be relying on for your JS -- it's not written in Javascript either.

It's not written in C either :-)


Well, take the C out of C++ and you're just left with ++, which I think is just a syntax error in most languages.

Except Brainfuck.

Maybe Brainfuck is the most important programming language today.


And in Haskell it is the list concatenation operator by default. (You can of course define it to mean something else.)


> If you really wanted to determine 'most important', think about what software you'd be left with if all software and dependencies written in a language was taken away.

That's one definition of "important". However, now that we have the OS's and webservers -- and are building _on_ them, what's the most important? Your point is like saying nuts and bolts are most important, for if you take them away the car will fall apart ;-)


The most important for programmers. I'm thinking the ratio of web programmers to that of system programmers is overwhelmingly large.

C rocks, though. :)




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2027 batch! Applications are open till November 2.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: