There is no requirement in C for char to be 8 bits. Even in modern C it's allowed to be bigger than that. For sure it is a bit limiting that in C everything els

There is no requirement in C for char to be 8 bits. Even in modern C it's allowed to be bigger than that. For sure it is a bit limiting that in C everything else has to be a multiple (possibly x1) of the size of char. Other languages don't have that restriction. Algol68 allowed char to be as small as 6 bits, the size on the ICL 1900 it was first developed on (with a 24 bit word size). Pascal was first implemented on the CDC 6600, with 60 bit words and characters again 6 bits. The first other machine Pascal was ported to was, again, the ICL 1900.