Post #3777774
2026-07-11 20:40 UTC
I was just sent this fascinating article about how C isn’t actually a low-level language, because no language can actually be low-level anymore
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3212479
I’m still processing all of the implications of this, but it’s already fundamentally shifting how I think about programming and especially how I think about “low-level” languages like C and Rust
Replies (1)
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@kasdeya@cryptid.cafe 2026-07-11 20:44
like, C’s underlying concept of how the CPU works is just as abstract and arbitrary as Lua’s set of abstractions or Lisp’s. the only reason why C is fast is because CPUs were designed around making it fast by pretending to be the type of CPU that C was originally made for, and then compilers on top of that are able to optimize it even more. so all of the finicky technical details that C makes you keep track of are essentially fake - as if it’s running on a virtual machine