I took an introductory C course in (I think) '86. Console programs in DOS.

That was around the time I was using the Smart Software suite and starting to use dBASE/FoxBase+ at work so there was a real dichotomy between what you could get done with X lines of code in those products vs. C. Still, I appreciated the speed and focus of C and I was impressed by the performance of products written with lower-level languages e.g.

- BRIEF editor: all operations basically instantaneous on a 4.77MHz IBM PC, even with large-ish 20K+ Fox procedure files

- WordPerfect for DOS: amazingly fast even on slow hardware. The rumour I heard was significant parts were written in x86 assembler

Still, the C idea of having a tiny core, and adding functionality via libraries is very valid even today and is a fundamental part of the Unix philosophy. I think that's a big part of why it's still strong in systems work (in many ways the only realistic choice for that, these days, even for Windows).

So if you'd mastered C/C++ you'd probably be socializing on the LKML or some such instead of here, and putting up with a shitty UI and getting yelled at by BDFLs ;)

We live in interesting times: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/09/microsoft_freebsd/

>Even in Modula the dev is responsible for memory managment, but back then for me the tipping factor was bounds checking for array.
>SafeArray had not happened - at least for me, when I became aware of them I had created a large system and ported it already across OS' twice and language once.
>Java came about a decade to late ;-)
>
>>Most likely mastered it. I did C/C++ for a short time and hated it. There should be no reason to have to manage every byte these days unless you want to. You also shouldn't have to worry about different types of strings. And dealing with pointers they way you have to is crazy. Compilers and hardware are so much better today.
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>>>I often wonder what would have happened to me if I had started the first long stretch of programming not along the Pascal/Modula line but with C and C++.
>>>Every time I have to drop down to coding in C or even read stretches of C++, which happens seldom (but the Pascal/Modula line is totally dead) it still feels like an uphill battle. Would I have mastered it or be a basket case by now?