Yes, the corner cases are quite bad. But still, C code can be remarkably portable. Back in the older days, using autoconf you could run - well written&portable

Yes, the corner cases are quite bad. But still, C code can be remarkably portable. Back in the older days, using autoconf you could run - well written&portable - C code on a very wide variety of OSes and architectures. Since then both OSes and architectures have consolidated, so it's less noticeable I suppose. But yes, I agree that in the context of a really dynamic language, it might not be what the author wants anyhow.