C Is Not a Low-Level Language by David Chisnall
Shares rank 15 of 60 articles by recommenders
People recommend this free article for explaining low-level multiprocessing issues and how C's model differs from computer hardware, and as a long-standing reference on the topic.
People recommend this free article for explaining low-level multiprocessing issues and how C's model differs from computer hardware, and as a long-standing reference on the topic.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Favorite paper on language and hardware
“one of my favorite papers on language theory and potential hardware design”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Zen-C: Write like a high-level language, run like C” “one of my favorite papers; it stole about a year and a half of my time”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “C Is Not a Low-Level Language (2018)” Long-standing recommended reading on the topic
“'C is not a low-level language' is a great blog post about the topic.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rust in the kernel is no longer experimental” “I've been a fan of this article for years”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “C Is Not a Low-Level Language (2018)”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| C Is Not a Low-Level Language by David ChisnallThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“one of my favorite papers; it stole about a year and a half of my time”
“I've been a fan of this article for years”
“it is a good article to read and understand low-level multiprocessing issues”
“Your computer is not a fast PDP-11.”
“I feel like the article “c is not a low level language” is worth linking here.”
“one of my favorite papers on language theory and potential hardware design”
“'C is not a low-level language' is a great blog post about the topic.”
“This ACM article might be interesting to you”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.