> The C language leads a double life: as an application programming language of yesteryear, perpetuated by circumstance, and as a systems programming language w

> The C language leads a double life: as an application programming language of yesteryear, perpetuated by circumstance, and as a systems programming language which remains a weapon of choice decades after its creation. This essay is a C programmer’s reaction to the call to abandon ship. It questions several properties commonly held to define the experience of using C; these include unsafety, undefined behaviour, and the motivation of performance. It argues all these are in fact inessential; rather, it traces C’s ultimate strength to a communicative design which does not fit easily within the usual conception of “a programming language”, but can be seen as a counterpoint to so-called “managed languages”. This communicativity is what facilitates the essential aspect of system-building: creating parts which interact with other, remote parts—being “alongside” not “within”. This reads like an article in Social Text. > Meditating on this communicativity suddenly gave way to a realisation: C is designed for communicating with aliens! The memes make themselves.