Dennis Ritchie Proclaims: C is Eternal, Java is Temporary
Description
A meme featuring a portrait of Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C programming language, superimposed over a scenic beach background. The image is overlaid with bold, white text in the style of classic image macros. The text reads: 'DON'T LOOK AT IT. JAVA IS TEMPORARY. IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. BUT C IS ETHERNAL'. The word 'eternal' is misspelled as 'ethernal'. This meme is a classic example of 'language war' humor, using a revered historical figure to lend weight to the argument. It portrays C as a timeless, fundamental technology while dismissing Java as a passing trend. For senior engineers, especially those in systems, embedded, or OS development, this is a nod to the enduring legacy and foundational importance of C, the language that built much of the modern computing world. The humor lies in the dramatic, almost cult-like reverence for C over more modern, managed languages
Comments
21Comment deleted
Java has a garbage collector, but C has a legacy that will never be collected
Java’s bytecode will get garbage-collected, but the C buffer overflow you shipped in 2003 will still be popping shells on someone’s thermostat in 2053 - that’s the real “ethernal.”
Java is temporary, but the null pointer exception in that C code you wrote in 1987 is still segfaulting in production somewhere, keeping Dennis's legacy alive one core dump at a time
After 50 years, C is still the lingua franca of systems programming - turns out when you're close enough to the metal, you don't need garbage collection because you ARE the garbage collector. Meanwhile, Java's on its 21st version trying to convince us that 'this time' the startup time will be acceptable
Every decade we announce a “C replacement,” then bootstrap it with a C toolchain and a POSIX-shaped surface - immortality by dependency
Java is temporary; the C .so your JVM still talks to via JNI is eternal - ABIs are the only contracts we never dare refactor
Java virtualizes away your problems; C makes you own them eternally, segfault by segfault
Should there be "eternal?" Comment deleted
F for Ritchie Comment deleted
C# for anything Comment deleted
no Comment deleted
Why not? Could you describe? Comment deleted
C#→Microsoft Microsoft→Evil Comment deleted
also this Comment deleted
that was a joke… well, half a joke. Microsoft is evil, but that doesn't say much about the quality of their programming language. Comment deleted
fuck powershell though Comment deleted
i mean, i don't think it's gonna be good if a single entity controls the language entirely, especially if that entity is microsoft Comment deleted
agreed. Comment deleted
it is slow, has runtime reflection, and it forces oop onto the user Comment deleted
also it can be used only for userspace stuff, so already not everything Comment deleted
granted, you don't want to, but you can Comment deleted