Let's put it this way- Java can update a graphic screen on a cellphone, between 10 and 90fps at most. In C, you can do it over 100,000fps. I kid you not.

Even if this were true, who cares? 100,000 fps for cellphone graphics is an utter waste of CPU cycles and power. Smart developers use the right tool for the job, not the fastest tool for every job.

Often the right tool is determined by library support. How long will it take you to deliver a cellphone app if you have to write your own graphics lib in C? How maintanable will that app be three years from now?

Sadly, while javascript is an essential language for doing anything cool on the web, it was a language designed by committee- pile of crap like most 'committee' endeavors.

The original Javascript was written by a single dude at Netscape. The committee thing happened later when it became standardized, but that's the case for every language that follows a standard. C and C++ have been designed by committees for several decades now.

It has so many failings, incomplete aspects, and other issues with it...

This can be said about every single language, so it's a meaningless statement. What really distinguishes languages in practical use is how much the language gets in your way of what you're trying to do. C is great when I need to manipulate memory, but painful for parsing text. Perl is practically incompetent at doing low-level stuff, but makes parsing text almost trivial. Right tool for the job. I'm a C guy, but recently I had to learn Javascript for a web dev project and I was pleasantly surprised by how little it gets in your way. Javascript's weak typing makes me a bit nervous for bigger projects, but Typescript addresses that.

In fact, I'm highly competent and familiar with virtually all programming languages.

Sorry, I don't believe it. Even if we restrict "virtually all programming languages" to the hundred most popular, I don't believe anyone in the world is highly competent at even a quarter of them.

Still, at the end of the day, C/C++ has not been surpassed by any other language for power, performance, capability, and is the go to language for anything serious.

C and C++ are entirely different languages, and neither are de facto appropriate for every "serious" application.

 

probably a missing element of the compile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_assemblers
(i probably didn't read the entire thread ;X)

 

Well I'll join in, just show how old I am,

started on a sort of assembly for a big main frame Mill main frame thing.

moved on to the much improved ALGOL 60,

then Fortan and yes Basic

( we used Fortan for the NAG libraries, BASIC for string processing )

Then ADA, and finally moved to hardware languages VHDL / Verilog

 

I'm surprised you didn't do what the rest of us did: write your own assembler (in machine code!).

Way back... I remember that all the chip makers would give you their chip documentation for the asking at that time. I'd write them as a business, letting them know we were looking at their processor for a computer we were building, and asking them for the books- they'd provide them. *LOVED* the original books- they did a better job of describing assembly language for the chip than any other books you could get- extremely well done.

Back in '92 there was a purge of books- everybody dumping the 'old stuff' (fools), thinking it was out-dated. Processors haven't changed much, fundamentally- much of the old stuff still applies and in many cases was educationally better than what is offered now (because at that time, they assumed nobody knew anything so they explained everything).

I still have my 6502 books, among many, many others.

 

I'm surprised you didn't do what the rest of us did: write your own assembler (in machine code!).

you can immediately write your prog in machine code (for some simple MCU) if you got the lookup table around
(why bother the) alternate = buy computer , buy software , write the lookup table to disk , build an ASM translator/"compiler" around it . . .

 

Never had any interest in Java or Javascript but maybe I should invest some time in Python?

Why python?

Well I'll join in, just show how old I am,

started on a sort of assembly for a big main frame Mill main frame thing.

moved on to the much improved ALGOL 60,

then Fortan and yes Basic

( we used Fortan for the NAG libraries, BASIC for string processing )

Then ADA, and finally moved to hardware languages VHDL / Verilog

Wow Somany languages. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.

APL and FORTH were two of my favorite languages.
I also had to learn ALGOL, LISP and SNOBOL in school before moving on to Pascal, not to mention FORTRAN, BASIC and ASM.

. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.

APL and FORTH were two of my favorite languages.
I also had to learn ALGOL, LISP and SNOBOL in school before moving on to Pascal, not to mention FORTRAN, BASIC and ASM.

Somany languages. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.

 

Why python?


Wow Somany languages. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.

. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.


Somany languages. I learned Q BASICS in my school time. C and Cpp followed. Now embedded c on c18 compilers. Don’t know the ABCD of Java or others.

It seems that you will need to revise your copy&paste ability in benefit of concision, and clarity of course.

 

Why python?

Because it has become one of the leading languages in use. That and I see more and more online users recommending it. Besides, it keeps me busy during retirement and is better than watching TV. Which I don't.

 

Never had any interest in Java or Javascript but maybe I should invest some time in Python?

Yes. Python makes programming fun again. When I want to whip up something quick, I use Python.

 

I'd like to see a distinction between "popular" vs. "lines of code".

COBOL (and, associated, RPG and CICS) should have been higher on the list for much of the time* -- in terms of lines of code. (...)

That would probably make APL the one using the least number of lines of code, since it is the archetype of "one line" of code to do the job, and even the origin for the name "oneliner" to describe a developer using that (perverse?) technique. No need to say that while it is usually fast to come with a solution with APL, APL is also relatively hard to maintain. Python got heavily influenced by it.