This article started out really well, saying you shouldn't e.g. byte-swap as part of the overall task at hand, then wanders into comparisons with other language

This article started out really well, saying you shouldn't e.g. byte-swap as part of the overall task at hand, then wanders into comparisons with other languages. I had hoped it was instead going to say that you should use some verified parsing tool to unpack data. All the other languages, at some level, will byte swap! It is the choice of the level of abstraction (or lack thereof) which is the systemd bug here, not the choice of a C family language IMNSHO.