how relevant is C today?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Grant Edwards wrote:
>> As for *learning* the languages: never learn a language
>> without a specific inducement.
> 
> That's silly.  Learning (weather a computer language, a natural
> language, or anything else) is never a bad thing.  The more
> languages you know, the more you understand about languages in
> general.  Learning languages is like any other skill: the more
> you do it, the better you get at it.

Learning a language (whether a natural or a programming language)
needs practice, both for reading and for writing. Natural languages
are often taught under the guidance of a teacher, to make sure
the student gets the practice she needs.

In my experience, you won't learn a programming language
effectively if you don't get practice (in particular, in writing
programs - although reading them might even require *more*
practice, especially for C). And, people often don't practice
enough (either a natural language, nor a programming language)
if they don't have a specific goal in mind what they want to
learn the language for.

> Geeze, when I think of all the things I've "wasted my time"
> learning.

That's everybody's choice, of course. If you enjoy programming
languages on their own merits, you won't need further motivation.
However, then you don't post to a newsgroup "should I learn
this language", but you just go ahead and do it.

Regards,
Martin