Progress in data processing

OK I am running vista.

My old machine died with a disk controller failure and I had to buy
a new one. The new one was cheaper than the old one (1100 Euros vs
620 Euros) but had twice as much RAM (2GB), twice as much disk
space (500GB) and twice as much processor (dual core AMD 64 bits)

Within the Vista OS, I installed a Virtual PC with windows XP,
to remember the old days.

And then, I compiled the source code of lcc-win32 using the
lcc-win32 compiler.

Vista: 3.5 seconds
Windows XP (running under Vista emulation) 4.4 seconds...

Can you imagine?

I wonder if I put a windows 98 emulation it will run actually
faster than the Vista version even if it is running in a
virtual PC!!!

Everything is slower or at best the same speed. I start
Microsoft C and it takes forever, just as it did under
XP, but much slower than it did under MSDOS.

Then, surfing the web I found (slashdot pointer)
http://hubpages.com/hub/_86_Mac_Plus_Vs_07_AMD_DualCore_You_Wont_Believe_Who_Wins

Those guys measured the time it takes to do common tasks under
a Mac of 1986 and a Vista/AMD dual core. The tasks are like
doing an Excel spreadsheet, using Word, booting the system, etc.

< QUOTE >
Check out the results! For the functions that people use most often, the 
1986 vintage Mac Plus beats the 2007 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+: 9 tests to 
8! Out of the 17 tests, the antique Mac won 53% of the time! Including a 
jaw-dropping 52 second whipping of the AMD from the time the Power 
button is pushed to the time the Desktop is up and usable.
< END QUOTE >

Yes, we wait longer for results today as we waited in 1986. The huge
benefits that could be here with such a hardware speed are completely
destroyed by the bloated software written in bloated languages that we
run today.

Why do I still use C?

Precisely because of that. Because the language is still against the
trend.

Simple software, simple languages are now a thing of the past.
Instead of progress we have regression. We have to run always
faster to keep at the same speed.

I am not implying that C is perfect or that I do not see the
huge gaps in the language. What I am pointing at, is that the
need for a simple and fast language is not in the present trends
of software development.

Actually this could be very good news for C. Obviously some
applications exist that could be better in terms of speed. :-)

But the problem with C is that is seen as obsolete. Most people
at the company where I was in my last consulting jobs used C++
and would laugh at anyone that would dare question their
templated bloat.

Who cares about speed they said. Who cares about disk space or
memory consumption.

Ram is cheap, disk is cheap. BLOAT IT!!!!!!

A disk costs the same if it is spinning with 50GB or with
350GB inside. FILL IT!

What now?

There is a much simpler solution to templates. It is called
aspect oriented programming.

That is the subject of the next installment. The objective of this
one is to point out that keeping things simple can be an
objective *per se*. And to keep them simple and fats, a
language without excessive bloat is needed.

C (with some improvements) fits this description.

jacob