Note: This blog post is based on the published article "The Project That Made Me Choose C Again" by online author Dayvster (@dayvster), who details the specific reasons for selecting the C programming language for a new development project in late 2025.
The Project That Made Me Choose C Again
The debate surrounding the relevance of established languages like C continues to generate significant discussion within the development community. While the industry often gravitates toward newer languages, some projects demand a level of control and efficiency that only classic system programming languages can truly deliver. This article addresses the core question: Is C still relevant?. Based on a recent, specific project initiative, the answer is a resounding yes.
Why C Was the Right Choice Here?
The selection of C for this particular initiative was not a nostalgic decision but a technical mandate. Dayvster's history as an author and developer shows a strong focus on low-level performance, having previously documented a deep dive into rewriting memcpy in Assembly and analyzing performance pitfalls, such as the counter-intuitive findings in "The Bit Shift Paradox". These prior experiences underscore an understanding that certain systems-level problems necessitate the direct hardware interaction and manual memory management inherent to C, suggesting that the project requirements aligned precisely with these demands.
Why Modern Languages Aren’t Always the Best Fit
While modern languages offer substantial advancements in safety and abstraction, they often introduce layers of complexity or runtime overhead that can become detrimental to performance-critical systems. The discussion around C often touches upon C programming myths. Dayvster has previously engaged with the modern language ecosystem, even arguing that languages like Odin deserve a place beside C, Zig, and Rust in a developer’s toolbox. However, the implicit nature of this article is that despite the benefits of these newer options, they were ultimately unsuitable for the specific constraints of the project at hand, requiring a return to the fundamentals of C programming.
C Excels in Low-Level System Programming and Efficiency
C remains paramount when efficiency is the primary concern, particularly in low-level system programming. Its minimal abstraction allows for highly optimized code generation and maximum control over system resources—features critical for operating systems, embedded systems, and high-performance computing. The topics associated with this article directly address C projects and their technical justification. For projects where efficiency measured down to the clock cycle is non-negotiable, C provides the essential toolkit, bypassing the overhead that higher-level languages might incur.
Conclusion
This project serves as a concrete example demonstrating that the persistent questions, Is C relevant? and Is C still relevant?, are answered not by opinion, but by engineering requirements. The author, Dayvster, emphasizes the practical necessity of C in situations demanding uncompromising performance and close proximity to the hardware.
...till next post, bye-bye & take care.