how relevant is C today?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

John Salerno wrote:
> Because of my 'novice-ness' in programming, I had always thought that C
> was replaced by C++ and wasn't really used anymore today. I know that's
> not the case at all now, but I'm still curious how much C is used
> anymore in programming today, and what purpose it serves. Is it used for
> actual application programming, or is its use more for something like
> extending Python? Would it help for a newbie to learn C for any reason?

My impression is that C++ hasn't managed to replace C, and that it isn't
used that much for new projects; of course, there is tons of existing
C++ code.

I think John Ousterhout's distinction of System programming vs.
Scripting languages isn't that bad, after all. C is used heavily
for System programming, and will not be replaced there for a foreseeable
future: operating systems, programming languages, web servers, database
servers, etc. OTOH, application programming is done in Java, Python,
C#, Ruby, ... C++ is used both for system programming and applications.

As for *learning* the languages: never learn a language without a
specific inducement. If you know you are going to write a Python
extension, an Apache module, or a Linux kernel module in the
near future, start learning C today. If you don't know what you
want to use it for, learning it might be a waste of time, as
you won't know what to look for if you don't have a specific project
in mind.

Regards,
Martin