Wouter van Ooijen wrote:
> Why? I guess C must have done something right, but I am not sure what
> it is.

Market acceptance is based on a number of factors, with technical
superiority not usually near the top of the list.

In think C got popular for various reasons, some having to do with history
and luck.  One technical point in its favor was that it was relatively easy
to write a compiler for.  The syntax changes I would have liked wouldn't
have made it harder though I think.

In my opinion, another factor is specifically because it is such a "bad"
language.  Especially in the early 1980s when C was at its steepest rise,
there was a lot of "I don't need no stink'n type checking" attitude and the
like.  It's relatively easy to do something simple quickly in C without
having to learn a lot and do a lot of them silly declaration thingies.  So =
C
had a initial appeal to bad or lazy programmers, and once it got critical
mass was hard to stop.  Unfortunately most programmers are bad, so few were
trying to stop it.

Never underestimate the power of morons in large numbers.


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