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C vs Erlang: What are the differences?
Introduction:
C and Erlang are two programming languages that have distinct features and are used for different purposes. Understanding the key differences between these two languages can help developers choose the right language for their specific needs. In this comparison, we will highlight six major differences between C and Erlang.
Memory Management and Concurrency Model: One of the fundamental differences between C and Erlang lies in their memory management and concurrency models. C is a low-level language that requires manual memory management, where developers are responsible for allocating and freeing memory. On the other hand, Erlang is a high-level language that provides automatic memory management, utilizing a garbage collector to release memory when it is no longer needed. Additionally, Erlang relies heavily on lightweight processes and message passing for concurrency, while C relies more on threads and shared memory.
Type System: C has a static type system where types need to be explicitly declared and checked at compile-time. Any type mismatches can lead to compilation errors. Erlang, on the other hand, has a dynamic type system where types are determined at runtime. This flexibility allows Erlang to be more tolerant of type errors and enables easier code modification and development of highly dynamic systems.
Error Handling: In C, error handling is primarily done using error codes or return values. Developers need to explicitly check and handle these errors, which can be error-prone and require extra code. In Erlang, error handling is based on the concept of "let it crash" where processes are isolated and can fail independently. This approach allows for fault-tolerant systems as errors are handled by restarting processes or forwarding to a supervisor process.
Concurrency and Parallelism: C does not have built-in support for explicit concurrency and parallelism. Developers need to rely on external libraries or system-specific APIs to implement concurrent or parallel code. On the other hand, Erlang provides lightweight processes and message passing as a built-in feature, making it easier to write concurrent and parallel code. Erlang's processes can run on multiple cores, allowing efficient utilization of hardware resources.
Pattern Matching: Pattern matching is a powerful feature in Erlang that is not present in C. Erlang's pattern matching allows for concise and elegant code to handle different data structures, making it easier to work with complex data manipulations and algorithmic implementations. C, on the other hand, requires more manual coding and manipulation to achieve similar functionality.
Distribution and Fault Tolerance: Erlang has built-in support for distributed computing, allowing processes to communicate seamlessly across multiple nodes in a network. This capability enables the development of fault-tolerant and scalable systems. In contrast, C does not provide native support for distributed computing, and developers need to rely on external libraries or frameworks to achieve distributed functionality.
In summary, C and Erlang differ in memory management, type systems, error handling, concurrency models, pattern matching, and distributed computing. Understanding these differences helps in choosing the appropriate language based on the specific requirements of the project.
Actually, I'll add, C++ and C# as well.
Well, I'm into Computer Science since 1996, so I understand a bit of everything plus a lot of different OSs, I study 10 hours per day every day. However back in the 90s we didn't have books or universities about programming, all were passed through if you knew somebody in that profession. Which I did and in that time, he showed me .NET and MySQL, and that offered a lot of jobs also Java. Today you have a lot of options but I'm already discarding new languages as I believe they will jot succeed.
My always dream was to create game, and software. I don't understand all programming concepts and I'm studying all languages at the same time, so I'm heavy loaded. But that keeps me more aware.
I made a choice: use Python for everything but if you want performance, apps, security, compatibility, Multiplatform. What should I choose? The real question here is: which language should I go 100% and that language will teach me all I need about programming BUT without getting lost in that language forever (I discard any Assembly possibility) and one that has full documentation, support and libraries.
In my experience: I found a lot of info for python and java. But hardly I have ever found anything for C lang, C++ and, what about C# (it's only for Windows, is it easy, I saw a lot of documentation). Thanks!!
I would go with Python, it is fast to code, readable and very powerful without giving you too much to think about (e.g. memory management). If you're looking for speed, Cython is a fairly good way to get there, since Python is a C-based language it can be compiled to C using Cython and will get you a very significant boost in speed! You can also make use of C libraries if you prefer. The only downside to Cython over Python is that it is compiled and not interpreted, which can make debugging a pain (but you might find yourself doing most of the debugging in Python before switching to Cython). C languages are a bit of a pain to read up on (API, libraries etc.), but Stack Overflow has you covered in most cases!
Python can be linked with C++ both language are similar in many places (using same libraries or concepts to build libraries) - except memory and static types. C++ is more assembler and have different syntax (need 3x-4x coding more).
If you do engineering it is perfect stack - Java is to slow in coding (4x more code) and little faster than Python - whatever it is hard to mix Java/C++ what is easy Python/C++.
In the most program you do not need super performance but if you need C++ is the best and have rich Object Language much richer than Java and more poor than Python. Python is true object language - everything is object.
Whatever sometimes more important is framework than language for specific use.
All programming languages are cross platform except Java, but even that's not that bad. Performance: C(++), Go, Rust, Java, Ada, OCaml, Haskell, C# Apps: JS, TS, ReScript, Go, C(++), Java, Haskell, C#, Dart Security: Java, Go, Rust, COBOL, C(++), C# Compatibility: Java(due to it's VM), C(++), Go, C# Libraries: Java, Go, C(++), C# Documentation: Java, C(++) (since they are mature) What do you mean without getting lost in the language? I'd not advocate for C(or C++), considering it's hard to understand the memory, and it's for those into programming theory. You are looking for all you need. Go for Java, it has a library for everything, it has a reasonable learning curve, and pretty much you are going to encounter it everywhere- it's like a programming black hole you can't escape.
When working on Python, I noticed that Python is only useful for data science. I am looking for a programming language that:
Is different in terms of paradigm(I used OO only in Python for data analysis, I want something that is a different paradigm to improve my coding skills)
Is excellent at systems engineering
Will enhance my Python projects and basically make Python better
Has an excellent future, will skyrocket in terms of demand
Is very performant, excellent performance
Has a steep learning curve(it's because I want a simple language and an advanced language in my stack)
I found these two languages to fit my needs, and I need help choosing. Which would be better for me considering my needs
Rust is more useful compared to C on some cases like in web assembly. C is more tedious to code. Rust is modern and has a lot more of opportunities. If you are also investing for the future I recommend Rust over C.
It must be Rust, It absorbs the advantages of other languages,safe, good performance and develop quickly, The community is also growing and active. I think there are some difficulties to learn Rust, but when you have mastered it, you will write good programs than C lang
include include int main(){ char name[10], pasword[10]; printf("enter you user name :"); gets(name); printf("enter your pasword : "); gets(pasword); printf("your name : %s \n your password : %s \n", name, pasword); if ( name != "youcef") { printf("name undefined\n"); } else { printf("finde name"); }
}
his not working
You will want to do a few things here. First, replace gets
with fgets
. Then, you're going to want to use strcmp
from string.h to compare the input with the desired result. The code listed below has been updated with a working example with the previously mentioned recommendations. This isn't perfect and there are other ways to accomplish the same task. Explore other options that are available when you have a chance and see if you can improve on this example.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char name[10],
pasword[10];
printf("enter you user name :");
// Use fgets as gets is insecure and can easily lead to buffer overflow exploits
fgets(name, sizeof(char) * sizeof(name), stdin);
// Remove \n from fgets stdin read with null character so as to not have to include
// in strcmp later.
name[strlen(name) - 1] = '\0';
printf("enter your pasword : ");
fgets(pasword, sizeof(char) * sizeof(pasword), stdin);
printf("your name : %s \n your password : %s \n", name, pasword);
// If strcmp result > 0 || < 0 it's not a match
if (strcmp(name, "youcef") != 0)
{
printf("name undefined\n");
}
else
{
printf("finde name");
}
}
Dear, Yusuf You can't use if statement to compare two strings, but you can use strcmp() function which means string compare The behavior of strcmp function is: If (string1 < string2)? Then: return a negative value. If (string1 > string2)? Then: return a positive value.
If(string1 == string2)? Then: return (0).So, you can modify this statment to: if(strcmp(name,"Yousef") != 0) printf("name undefined\n");
else printf("find name");But, In this case there is one logic problem that (strcmp) function don't ignore the letter case. For example: If you input name : yousef
The first letter here (y) is small, but in the comparing statement above is capital, So the result will be "name undefined", but in fact "yousef" = "Yousef".To solve this problem you should use stracasecmp() function. This function ignore the letter case while comparing. The code will be: if(strcasecmp(name,"Yousef") != 0) printf("name undefined\n");
else printf("find name");Attention: Include string libreary after using these functions to skip any problem may be found.
includemay Allah bless you ^_^
Python has become the most popular language for machine learning right now since almost all machine learning tools provide service for this language, and it is really to use since it has many build-in objects like Hashtable. In C, you need to implement everything by yourself.
C++ is one of the most popular programming languages in graphics. It has many fancy libraries like eigen to help us process matrix. I have many previous projects about graphics based on C++ and this time, we also need to deal with graphics since we need to analyze movements of the human body. C++ has much more advantages than Java. C++ uses only compiler, whereas Java uses compiler and interpreter in both. C++ supports both operator overloading and method overloading whereas Java only supports method overloading. C++ supports manual object management with the help of new and delete keywords whereas Java has built-in automatic garbage collection.
As a personal research project I wanted to add post-quantum crypto KEM (key encapsulation) algorithms and new symmetric crypto session algorithms to openssh. I found the openssh code and its channel/context management extremely complex.
Concurrently, I was learning Go. It occurred to me that Go's excellent standard library, including crypto libraries, plus its much safer memory model and string/buffer handling would be better suited to a secure remote shell solution. So I started from scratch, writing a clean-room Go-based solution, without regard for ssh compatibility. Interactive and token-based login, secure copy and tunnels.
Of course, it needs a proper security audit for side channel attacks, protocol vulnerabilities and so on -- but I was impressed by how much simpler a client-server application with crypto and complex terminal handling was in Go.
$ sloc openssh-portable Languages Files Code Comment Blank Total CodeLns Total 502 112982 14327 15705 143014 100.0% C 389 105938 13349 14416 133703 93.5% Shell 92 6118 937 1129 8184 5.7% Make 16 468 37 131 636 0.4% AWK 1 363 0 7 370 0.3% C++ 3 79 4 18 101 0.1% Conf 1 16 0 4 20 0.0% $ sloc xs Languages Files Code Comment Blank Total CodeLns Total 34 3658 1231 655 5544 100.0% Go 19 3230 1199 507 4936 89.0% Markdown 2 181 0 76 257 4.6% Make 7 148 4 50 202 3.6% YAML 1 39 0 5 44 0.8% Text 1 30 0 7 37 0.7% Modula 1 16 0 2 18 0.3% Shell 3 14 28 8 50 0.9%
Pros of C lang
- Performance68
- Low-level49
- Portability35
- Hardware level28
- Embedded apps19
- Pure13
- Performance of assembler9
- Ubiquity8
- Great for embedded6
- Old4
- Compiles quickly3
- OpenMP2
- No garbage collection to slow it down2
- Gnu/linux interoperable1
Pros of Erlang
- Concurrency Support60
- Real time, distributed applications60
- Fault tolerance56
- Soft real-time35
- Open source31
- Functional programming21
- Message passing20
- Immutable data15
- Works as expected13
- Facebook chat uses it at backend5
- Practical4
- Knowledgeable community4
- Bullets included3
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Cons of C lang
- Low-level5
- No built in support for concurrency3
- Lack of type safety2
- No built in support for parallelism (e.g. map-reduce)2