在听StackOverflow播客的时候,经常有人说“真正的程序员”是用C语言编写的,而C语言的速度要快得多,因为它“接近机器”。把前面的断言留到另一篇文章,C有什么特别之处,使它比其他语言更快?或者换句话说:什么能阻止其他语言编译成二进制代码,使其运行速度与C语言一样快?
当前回答
C语言速度很快,因为它是原生编译的低级语言。但是C不是最快的。递归斐波那契基准测试表明Rust、Crystal和Nim可以更快。
其他回答
c语言并没有什么特别之处,这也是它速度快的原因之一。
新语言支持垃圾收集、动态类型和其他功能,使程序员更容易编写程序。
问题在于,会有额外的处理开销,这会降低应用程序的性能。C语言没有这些,这意味着没有开销,但这意味着程序员需要能够分配内存并释放它们以防止内存泄漏,并且必须处理变量的静态类型。
也就是说,许多语言和平台,如Java(其Java虚拟机)和。net(其公共语言运行时),多年来通过即时编译(从字节码生成本机机器代码以实现更高性能)等技术改进了性能。
这是自动和手动的区别,高级语言是抽象的,因此是自动化的。C/ c++是人工控制和处理的,甚至错误检查代码有时也是人工劳动。
C和c++也是编译语言,这意味着没有任何一种语言可以在任何地方运行,这些语言必须针对您使用的硬件进行微调,从而增加了额外的隐患。尽管现在C/ c++编译器在所有平台上变得越来越普遍,这有点令人不安。您可以在平台之间进行交叉编译。这仍然不是一个到处运行的情况,你基本上是在指示编译器a针对编译器B编译相同的代码,不同的架构。
归根结底,C语言并不意味着容易理解或推理,这也是为什么它们被称为系统语言。他们出现在所有高层次抽象的废话之前。这也是为什么它们不用于前端web编程。他们只是不适合这项任务,他们的意思是解决传统语言工具无法解决的复杂问题。
这就是为什么你会得到一些疯狂的东西(微架构、驱动程序、量子物理、AAA游戏、操作系统),这些东西C和c++非常适合。速度和数据处理是主要领域。
撇开诸如热点优化、预编译元算法和各种形式的并行等高级优化技术不提,语言的基本速度与支持通常在内部循环中指定的操作所需的隐含的幕后复杂性密切相关。
也许最明显的方法是对间接内存引用进行有效性检查——比如检查指针是否为空,检查索引是否符合数组边界。大多数高级语言隐式地执行这些检查,但C不这样做。然而,这并不一定是这些其他语言的基本限制——一个足够聪明的编译器可能能够通过某种形式的循环不变代码运动,从算法的内部循环中删除这些检查。
C语言(在类似程度上与c++密切相关)更基本的优势是严重依赖基于堆栈的内存分配,这本质上是快速的分配、回收和访问。在C(和c++)中,主调用堆栈可用于分配原语、数组和聚合(结构/类)。
虽然C语言确实提供了动态分配任意大小和生命周期的内存的能力(使用所谓的“堆”),但默认情况下是避免这样做的(而是使用堆栈)。
诱人的是,有时可以在其他编程语言的运行时环境中复制C内存分配策略。asm.js已经证明了这一点,它允许用C或c++编写的代码被翻译成JavaScript的子集,并以接近本机的速度安全地运行在web浏览器环境中。
As somewhat of an aside, another area where C and C++ outshine most other languages for speed is the ability to seamlessly integrate with native machine instruction sets. A notable example of this is the (compiler and platform dependent) availability of SIMD intrinsics which support the construction of custom algorithms that take advantage of the now nearly ubiquitous parallel processing hardware -- while still utilizing the data allocation abstractions provided by the language (lower-level register allocation is managed by the compiler).
C的设计者们已经做出了取舍。也就是说,他们决定把速度放在安全之上。C不会
检查数组下标边界 检查未初始化的变量值 检查内存泄漏 检查空指针解引用
当你索引到一个数组时,在Java中,它接受虚拟机中的一些方法调用,绑定检查和其他健全检查。这是有效的,绝对没问题,因为它在应有的地方增加了安全性。但是在C语言中,即使是非常微不足道的东西也不会被放在安全的地方。例如,C不要求memcpy检查要复制的区域是否重叠。它并不是一种用于编写大型商业应用程序的语言。
但是这些设计决策并不是C语言中的bug。它们是被设计出来的,因为它允许编译器和库编写者从计算机中获得每一点性能。下面是C语言的精神——C语言的基本原理文档是这样解释的:
C code can be non-portable. Although it strove to give programmers the opportunity to write truly portable programs, the Committee did not want to force programmers into writing portably, to preclude the use of C as a ``high-level assembler'': the ability to write machine-specific code is one of the strengths of C. Keep the spirit of C. The Committee kept as a major goal to preserve the traditional spirit of C. There are many facets of the spirit of C, but the essence is a community sentiment of the underlying principles upon which the C language is based. Some of the facets of the spirit of C can be summarized in phrases like Trust the programmer. Don't prevent the programmer from doing what needs to be done. Keep the language small and simple. Provide only one way to do an operation. Make it fast, even if it is not guaranteed to be portable. The last proverb needs a little explanation. The potential for efficient code generation is one of the most important strengths of C. To help ensure that no code explosion occurs for what appears to be a very simple operation, many operations are defined to be how the target machine's hardware does it rather than by a general abstract rule. An example of this willingness to live with what the machine does can be seen in the rules that govern the widening of char objects for use in expressions: whether the values of char objects widen to signed or unsigned quantities typically depends on which byte operation is more efficient on the target machine.
The fastest running code would be carefully hand crafted machine code. Assembler will be almost as good. Both are very low level and it takes a lot of writing code to do things. C is a little above assembler. You still have the ability to control things at a very low level in the actual machine, but there is enough abstraction make writing it faster and easier then assembler. Other languages such as C# and JAVA are even more abstract. While Assembler and machine code are called low level languages, C# and JAVA (and many others) are called high level languages. C is sometimes called a middle level language.