C you Dennis!
Francis Sedgemore, Thursday 13 October 2011 at 14:55 UTC
Dennis Ritchie, inventor of C, the world’s best known computer programming language, is no more.
Despite being a highly experienced Fortran programmer, I once coded an entire upper atmosphere chemistry and physics model in C. Just for the hell of it. That model is the most elegant and efficient computer code I have ever written. Poetry in malloc…
for(j=0;j<t_reactions ;j++)
{
if(reaction_table[j].species_1==UNITY_INDEX)
s1=1.0;
else
s1=u[reaction_table[j].species_1];
if(reaction_table[j].species_2==UNITY_INDEX)
s2=1.0;
else
s2=u[reaction_table[j].species_2];
r_rate=find_reaction_rate(reaction_table[j].rate,u,*x);
reaction[j]=s1*s2*r_rate;
}
RIP Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (1941–2011)
Feed the writer! 
Monday 17 October 2011 at 18:35 UTC
Back before Java (or C-sharp), malloc was the major source of my bugs, since it’s unmanaged. It just sits there if you don’t dispose of it.
BTW, always put the constant first in comparisons in any c-derived language. Eg,
if (UNITY_INDEX == j)
That way, the compiler will catch the most common error, typing “=” when you mean “==”.
Monday 17 October 2011 at 18:37 UTC
But this model is, or was, mine, and I would never commit such a heinous error.