In other words, C is not a great language for the task, but, being forced to use it, NASA had to devise rules that helped static checking, at the cost of making

In other words, C is not a great language for the task, but, being forced to use it, NASA had to devise rules that helped static checking, at the cost of making the code harder to write and read. Were they able to use Ada or even Modula-2 more widely, much of that won't be needed.