<rant> "__SIZE_TYPE__" is a builtin symbol in the preprocessor, seriously? echo __SIZE_TYPE__ | cpp - # 1 "<stdin>" # 1 "<built-in>" # 1 "<com

<rant> "__SIZE_TYPE__" is a builtin symbol in the preprocessor, seriously? echo __SIZE_TYPE__ | cpp - # 1 "<stdin>" # 1 "<built-in>" # 1 "<command-line>" # 31 "<command-line>" # 1 "/usr/include/stdc-predef.h" 1 3 4 # 32 "<command-line>" 2 # 1 "<stdin>" long unsigned int Okay, so it's defined in a file apparently. But why is that file automatically included in every program, and not the more usual type definitions? And is there really no better way to define "an integer the size of a pointer" than by going through this rat's nest of text substitutions? The C language seems almost designed on purpose to maximize uglyness. It is called "portable assembly language", but even in this day and age when there are only two or three relevant processor architectures, which have been largely designed around being able to run C code efficiently (to the detriment of everything else), it falls short of that. It is only portable at all because of include files that are included from other files, containing __MACROS__ calling on __OTHER__MACRO_S___ to the n-th degree. The most advanced compiler algorithms are then applied to the problem of transforming the resulting ((void *)(__pile_of(cr*p))()) back into machine code that is at least not completely terrible. Follow every obscure rule of the standard, and they might be so nice not to remove your carefully written null pointer check in the process! And people worship this uglyness and needless complexity, even as it strangles the life out of every other technology like a cancer that has been growing for 50 years. Professionals and hobbyists both, they celebrate how clever they are, being able to work around its deficiencies, think that they are dealing with the fundamentals of computer science rather than the grotesque evolution of an operating system originally written to typeset documents and play SpaceWar. Just once I'd like to see a new operating system - better yet, a new CPU! - that is not based on C and UNIX, one that is outright hostile to them at every level of abstraction. Not a single line of C code anywhere, different calling convention, different filesystem, user interface, networking etc.