how relevant is C today?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

John Zenger wrote:
> Your message makes me sad, as if I heard someone say "never read a book
> without a specific inducement; if you know someone is going to ask you
> about the book, start reading it today, but if you don't know what you
> are going to use the book for, reading it will be a waste of time."

Ah. I wasn't actually talking about reading a C book. I was talking
about learning the programming language. You should, of course, read
a book about C - but I don't believe you can learn to program C by
just reading a book (or any other programming language, for that
matter). You will read the book, and might be able to *read* C programs
afterwards. To be able to write them, you need practice, and, for
that, you need a specific inducement.

Regards,
Martin