The key phrase here is "if you can avoid it". When your target platform is an 8-bit microcontroller or an embedded system with hard real-time requirements, you

The key phrase here is "if you can avoid it". When your target platform is an 8-bit microcontroller or an embedded system with hard real-time requirements, your options are very limited. But there are plenty of situations where there are alternatives, and often these allow you to solve your problem in less time, with much lower risk of bugs than in C. As always in life, one has to evaluate one's options, consider their respective advantages and weaknesses and then make a choice. If I had to write a document like that, I would use a different phrasing from "if you can avoid it". But the sentiment - to avoid using C where superior alternatives exist[1] - is something I agree with. > A great many of the problems that people experience with C code can actually be nullified (zing!) by finding a competent C programmer who does the job properly. That is kind of like saying the solution to traffic accidents is only letting people drive that don't cause accidents or demand of people that they drive sufficiently carefully. Sure, that is something worth wishing for - but it is not very realistic to expect this to actually happen. Not that I disagree that C is a very demanding language. Even the best programmers make mistakes. But this is the reason the author of the original document the linked article refers to advised people to avoid C where possible. Most programmers will be better off for most of their projects with a language like Go, or Python or whatever. [1] Of course, if by "alternatives" I mean languages like Perl, Python or Ruby, it is worth keeping in mind that their main implementations are written in C.