A pointer is nothing but an integer that "points to" a memory location.

They can feel intimidating because it's really easy to footgun with them, but they are not as complicated as they appear :)

C is simple. Like really simple. Hardly anything exists in C lol. You have Integers, floats, chars, arrays, functions, pointers and structs. That's it.

Therefore reading C isn't too difficult.

Now doing anything in C? Lol have fun with that, nothing exists in C.

C++, you're absolutely right lol the standard lib in c++ is so god damn big I don't even know where to begin when using it. And there's like a billion different ways to approach a problem there.

I like C. I don't like working on C just because if you want a hashmap you must first build the universe lol. But c is fun.

I've been finding that same fun feeling in Rust though I haven't used it long enough to know whether that's just the "ohh new shiny" fun or "I really like this" fun.

Imo the amount of magic variables in perl is too damn high.

Like I don't want to have to keep all that in my head while parsing through thousands of lines of code. I spent a few years working as a perl developer and even near my last days there I still found myself digging through docs to figure out what certain symbols meant and did.

My first developer role was as a junior developer and I was tossed into single letter variable loop hell in perl lol.

I was telling my mentor that if I were introduced to perl now that I've got several years of experience in a variety of different languages and thought models, it probably wouldn't bother me as much. I kind of like bash (sometimes) and perl is really a hyper extended scripting language so going from bash to perl isn't too bad. But given that that is what I was started in, I have a massive distaste for it and I doubt that will ever change.

My main issue with PS is that it is JavaScripty. And by that I mean, it makes tons of assumptions on what I "mean" by my command. And it's usually right and thus I don't see any issues. But when those assumptions are wrong, I have to do all kinds of parameter fuckery to make it be what I "expect".

None of that is true is bash. It doesn't make many assumptions at all (at least none that I've come across). Things act the same when I'm using bash in a script vs the cli vs over an ssh connection vs within a subshell, etc.

And ya the whole "it's pretty verbose" is irritating too (though that could also be a counter argument against bash relying on magic variables and abusing the shit out of symbols).

I don't hate PS but I don't enjoy spending time in it. I don't hate bash but it hurts me less when I use it