Any C language programmers?
Discussion
Do we have any C language programmers on here that either work for a company offering such services in the UK, or freelance? Need some code assessing and developing and don't know where to turn; not had much success from upwork etc.
C is used for its low-level capabilities for the task in hand (querying a server hundreds of thousands of times per day); I'm not aware of an alternative language that can compete.
C is used for its low-level capabilities for the task in hand (querying a server hundreds of thousands of times per day); I'm not aware of an alternative language that can compete.
I think most C (and assembly) guys these days are working on embedded stuff where the performance/resource equation makes it difficult to use something more modern.
Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
I am, well C++ mainly but that's just object orientated C innit. Not looking for work though. As a company we've usually been able to get contractors as and when we've needed extra hands but I've not been personally involved in that procurement. Maybe you're not looking in the right places?
otolith said:
I think most C (and assembly) guys these days are working on embedded stuff where the performance/resource equation makes it difficult to use something more modern.
Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
Not so much a problem, looking for improvements.Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
My script operates from a dedicated server close to the destination servers, designed at querying their database for an answer, which typically takes a round trip of less than 2ms. When one answer is given, it keeps checking (typically 10 times per second), one another answer is given, it performs an action to register something.
Latency etc is all factored in, and of course is a key component. The rest is down to how quick the code can react to a situation, which I believe is where code language like C is outperforms others, such as Perl, Python, PHP etc.
otolith said:
I think most C (and assembly) guys these days are working on embedded stuff where the performance/resource equation makes it difficult to use something more modern.
Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
I love the word performant. I've used it a fair few times over the years but no one ever seems to agree that it is actually a word. Sorry not on topic.Depending what you are doing and what you are doing it on, some of the modern languages are performant enough for most situations. When you say "querying a server", do you mean remotely? In that case, unless you are doing something intensive with the data, you're going to spend more time in network overhead than processing.
Can you say anything more about the problem?
davek_964 said:
So is this optimising existing C code, or starting from scratch?
It could be either. Either the programmer will say what I have is pretty good but could implement x, y and z, or will suggest reasons why a full rebuild might yield improved results. The challenge is finding someone.ianMD said:
davek_964 said:
So is this optimising existing C code, or starting from scratch?
It could be either. Either the programmer will say what I have is pretty good but could implement x, y and z, or will suggest reasons why a full rebuild might yield improved results. The challenge is finding someone.As for finding someone its not going to be easy and will cost. As mentioned above most people will be working in embedded stuff and others will have moved on from C. There is a huge shortage of staff out there.
Do you have much budget? You will be looking for a contractor but they will want £400+ a day and will be looking for a few weeks work minimum.
You will struggle to find a freelancer to do a couple of days work.
ianMD said:
Not so much a problem, looking for improvements.
My script operates from a dedicated server close to the destination servers, designed at querying their database for an answer, which typically takes a round trip of less than 2ms. When one answer is given, it keeps checking (typically 10 times per second), one another answer is given, it performs an action to register something.
Latency etc is all factored in, and of course is a key component. The rest is down to how quick the code can react to a situation, which I believe is where code language like C is outperforms others, such as Perl, Python, PHP etc.
Highly optimised C/C++ will match or outperform most things, but C# and Java can get similar numbers on many benchmarks. Depends what exactly you are doing. Is it maths? Text parsing? Lookups? Often a good algorithm makes more difference than the language its written in.My script operates from a dedicated server close to the destination servers, designed at querying their database for an answer, which typically takes a round trip of less than 2ms. When one answer is given, it keeps checking (typically 10 times per second), one another answer is given, it performs an action to register something.
Latency etc is all factored in, and of course is a key component. The rest is down to how quick the code can react to a situation, which I believe is where code language like C is outperforms others, such as Perl, Python, PHP etc.
I work with C and assembler but not looking for any work at the moment, particularly with existing code. If needing something to work quickly and consistently I tend to use assembler. Don't think anyone will be keen to dive in without seeing what the code is like and how well it is commented first.
otolith said:
Highly optimised C/C++ will match or outperform most things, but C# and Java can get similar numbers on many benchmarks. Depends what exactly you are doing. Is it maths? Text parsing? Lookups? Often a good algorithm makes more difference than the language its written in.
Essentially lookups waiting for a one-time specific response to then fire off a command to register something.ianMD said:
Essentially lookups waiting for a one-time specific response to then fire off a command to register something.
I would think that Java or C# using a suitable fast data structure would be pretty damn quick, to be honest.Most of our performance optimisation goes into databases, because that's where most of our overhead is, but we've recently done a lot of work in chewing through large files quickly. Different sort of problem, though, and more focused on making processing time as close to O(n) as possible (bits of the files need lookups to other bits of the files).
otolith said:
ianMD said:
Essentially lookups waiting for a one-time specific response to then fire off a command to register something.
I would think that Java or C# using a suitable fast data structure would be pretty damn quick, to be honest.Also sounds a bit backwards as an approach, I assume there's a reason it's polling rather than being pushed from the other side.
I've done the whole gamut from assembler to C# (and more - just going down one side of the programming languages).
My concern is that you want to query a server - the main delay would be the networking, unless you've got a lot of parsing and interpretation of data to do.
If the data is simple, then any language overhead (such as byte code or CLR) would be minimal compared to the network delays.
If the data is complex, then you may find that using a higher level language would be easier to prove it's right (easier to understand and follow). But you could start with something that uses a higher level, and get that to prove some lower level language.
A few years ago, I did a conversion of C to ARM assembly of MPEG video decoding, and converted functions at a time and profiled the changes to see if they did the right thing - and that would be my approach for complex data that needs performance.
Eta: I didn't read the whole thread, and didn't realise it had already been mentioned
My concern is that you want to query a server - the main delay would be the networking, unless you've got a lot of parsing and interpretation of data to do.
If the data is simple, then any language overhead (such as byte code or CLR) would be minimal compared to the network delays.
If the data is complex, then you may find that using a higher level language would be easier to prove it's right (easier to understand and follow). But you could start with something that uses a higher level, and get that to prove some lower level language.
A few years ago, I did a conversion of C to ARM assembly of MPEG video decoding, and converted functions at a time and profiled the changes to see if they did the right thing - and that would be my approach for complex data that needs performance.
Eta: I didn't read the whole thread, and didn't realise it had already been mentioned
ianMD said:
Do we have any C language programmers on here that either work for a company offering such services in the UK, or freelance? Need some code assessing and developing and don't know where to turn; not had much success from upwork etc.
C is used for its low-level capabilities for the task in hand (querying a server hundreds of thousands of times per day); I'm not aware of an alternative language that can compete.
I am long since retired from this kind of thing, but for a few beer tokensC is used for its low-level capabilities for the task in hand (querying a server hundreds of thousands of times per day); I'm not aware of an alternative language that can compete.
I could be persuaded to have a shufti at your code.
When you say "code assessing" do you mean static or dynamic analysis ?
What platforms does the code run on ? If it is Microsoft, then I am out.
How much code are we talking about here ? If it is < 10K lines,
that's pretty much student project level and so should be pretty
easy to assimilate.
I've only been doing C code since 1985, so I am still fairly new to it ;->
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