At Cloudmetrx, we use a lot of C. So given the recent passing of UNIX legend Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C language, we think a toast to C is only fitting.
Our extensive reliance on C is especially unusual considering the other languages in our stack – Clojure, Node.js, and other hipster platforms. We aren't predisposed to using older, "venerated" technologies simply because they're older and venerated. But when it comes to high-performant computation, there's just nothing like C. Some will claim Java, but those people are incorrect. There's nothing like C.
In my opinion, the reason C has maintained its popularity for all these years is that it is relatively paradigm-free. Most languages, for better or worse, come equipped with some inherently recommended programming paradigm – object-oriented, functional, whatever. The realities of the hardware, then, are sculpted to best support that paradigm.
