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Seeking Multi-Platform I/O Libraries?

Posted by Cliff on from the input-and-output-on-your-OS dept.

An Anonymous Coward asks: "I'm just getting ready to plunge into a new project, and joy of joys have been given complete freedom when it comes to the implementation language - so long as the program will build and run on both x86 Linux and Windows. Now, I don't need a GUI, this is systems stuff only (processing binary executables in fact, so lots of bitfiddling and big nasty algorithms over hairy data structures) so pretty much all I need are standard IO libraries. C is currently at the top of my list..but what other language should I be looking at? I'm happy to learn a new one, and have the go ahead to do it..like I say, they want absolute speed. Can someone suggest a better language? C++ is out, it does come with a speed hit (using C++ properly anyway, not as a souped-up C). If I'm gonna take the speed hit, I may as well consider something like Ocaml which might let me claw the speed back with better algorithms and data structures.."

2 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Consider Python... Wait! Don't leave!!! by Phoukka · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know it's a bit of a stretch, but consider Python. Prototype the heck out of the system in Python, profile the application, then recode the bottlenecks in C. Use SWIG to generate your interfaces. Easier to program, easier to extend, easier to read/maintain. Shorter programming time, too.

    You'll be happier, your fellow programmers will be happier, your successor programmers will be happier, and the chewy parts of your code will still be really fast. Think about it.

  2. Re:Consider Python... Wait! Don't leave!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes and no. Python is a nice language, and potentially useful. However, where I work we have a "legacy" system written in python with SWIG (interacting with C++).

    The problem is that under large workloads (which is normal for us) you end up with python spending more time marshalling and unmarshalling objects. It's a PITA. I blame this mostly on SWIG (which I am NOT a fan of. Don't get me started on what the maintainers consider good development practice.)

    Python's a great choice if you can do it all natively. It's also a great language to prototype in and then "translate" to another language like C++ or C or Java. (depending on task and preference.) But I wouldn't do the python+swig thing.

    [Note: I'm only posting anonymously to protect my identity. There are certain political factions at work that read /. and would be very unhappy with me discussing this.]