Things that you can actually do in C : - Embedded and real time programming - GUI programming (GTK, Nuklear, NAppGui, RayGui) - Berkeley Sockets programming - IOT Network programming (ZeroMQ, RabbitMQ, libcurl, Paho MQTT client, nanomsg ) - Talking to databases (Postgresql, sql, sqllite, mariadb, mongodb and more) - WebFrameworks / Web servers (onion, libmicrohttpd, Kore, facil) - Graphics (OpenGL, SDL, RayLib, CSFML) - Command line tools - Command line tools with a graphical interface (ncurses. not curses) - Scientific / Numerical computing / Plotting (GSL, GnuPlot, FFTW, apophenia, libBlas, ATLAS and more) - Machine learning ( FANN, DarkNET). - Crypto ( openSSL, libsodium) - File processing ( jsonC, Libcsv) -Linux / BSD Kernel space programming (drivers e.t.c.) And much much more (compression,encoding, video playback, image processing ....). To further understand the scope of exactly what you can do with C, Just have a look at the following 5 Awesome C lists on the web that include C libraries, applications, editors, build systems e.t.c.: Awesome C - inputsh Awesome C - project awesome Awesome C - oz123 Awesome C - mazurov Awesome C - uhub More on reddit.com

C is a good language to learn. It is the grandfather of all modern programming languages. It was the developed around 1970. It is not the oldest language still used (FORTRAN, COBOL are older) but it uses a syntax (the weird letters and random words that you are complaining about) which is very much like C++, Java, C# (.NET), javascript, even Perl. What makes the syntax similar is the use of curly brackets {} to define the scope of programs, functions and structures. The same primitive types int for integer, double for double precision decimal numbers, char for a text character. And then many of the control keywords are the same. If you need to loop over many items, you'll use the for or while keywords. Your next language will be much easier once you know C. In some ways, the other languages add some complexity, like the ability to define 'class's. But in other ways, they're simpler because they have special features to common higher-level tasks like manipulating blocks of text which can be tedious in C because you have do things manually character by character. I don't know how much more detail is appropriate for ELI5. Happy coding. More on reddit.com

c is one of the first modern languages, and it can directly access a computer's hardware. it is also VERY fast, basically the fastest popular language out there linux is written in C for example also, many of the other popular languages are similar in syntax to C, e.g. Java, C#, C++, JavaScript are all C-ish in syntax python is a different animal, with very different syntax, but if you knew C, you could easily pick up many other languages in a weekend -- not to be an expert mind you, but you would not be lost. a loop in C is basically the same as a loop in C++, C#, Java, etc. More on reddit.com

I'd partly agree. Knowing c gives you a better understanding of what's going on under the surface and as such knowing it will help your programming in other higher level languages. But it is also a very steep learning curve, learning memory management and underlying data structures at the same as trying to get the hang of higher level concepts like how to structure your data and code can put people off. The aim isn't to make people quit in frustration. So yes on learning c. But maybe as a second language not as the first unless you have masochistic tendancies. More on reddit.com