> C is a structured programming language that uses functions, so our processors like functions. The main alternative paradigms that are ever mooted are LISP ma

> C is a structured programming language that uses functions, so our processors like functions. The main alternative paradigms that are ever mooted are LISP machines, which elevate the importance of functions, and maybe stack-based programming languages like Forth, which emphasize the feature of functions seen here (that they keep popping things off the stack). It's hard to argue that C has led us down to a local minimum because it's just too functional.