Another aspect of C that's worth mentioning here is that it is, to put it bluntly, a bit dangerous. C does not, in general, try hard to protect a programmer from mistakes. If you write a piece of(66)which will(through some oversight of yours)do something wildly different from what you intended it to do, up to and including(67)your(68)or trashing your(69), and if it is possible for the(70)to compile it, it generally will. You wont get warnings of the form. 'Do you really mean to... ?' or 'Are you sure you really want to... ?'. C is often compared to a sharp knife :' it can do a surgically precise job on some exacting task you have in mind, but it can also do a surgically precise job of cutting off your finger. It's up to you to use it carefully.