> You can absolutely learn the syntax of C in an afternoon, or a few days at worst That depends on what you mean by "learn". Learn it well enough to make some

> You can absolutely learn the syntax of C in an afternoon, or a few days at worst That depends on what you mean by "learn". Learn it well enough to make something that works for you, on your architecture, with your toolchain? Sure. Learn it well enough to know which combinations of the syntax you (thought you fully) learned trigger undefined and wildly variable behavior in the wild or when run with other libraries/build environments? Hell no. And bugs caused by that stuff are distressingly common. That's not a "system specific gotcha". It's a huge area of skill-requiring behavior that arises directly within the core syntax of the language. Saying "you can learn C in a weekend" is like saying "you can learn to drive a car in a weekend" in reference to learning how to maneuver a car alone in a big empty parking lot. Technically true, but it'll leave you woefully unprepared for operating that car the way almost everyone wants to: around other cars, in more complicated contexts, subject to many more unpredictable factors (other people).