Ugh. Just today I've had to clean up a problem where a function was called without enough parameters, but because the compile-and-link step included just the r

Ugh. Just today I've had to clean up a problem where a function was called without enough parameters, but because the compile-and-link step included just the right components, there was neither a warning nor an error. Not only that, but because of a coincidence on the stack (the missing parameter was a NULL, which just so happened to be lying around), the relevant unit tests actually passed. The problem with C is that, for all its simplicity, there's a ton of voodoo which you've got to "just know", and the best practices are not at all clear from what the language makes easy. In fact, the language makes it easy to make mistakes and difficult to find them. I wish Go had made GC optional, I really do.