1. Your first example ends with "C may be a small language, but it’s not a simple one." By your argument, it feels like you'd say the language is large because

1. Your first example ends with "C may be a small language, but it’s not a simple one." By your argument, it feels like you'd say the language is large because you have to understand that rule if you really cared about consistent results everywhere. I agree with the author -- small but not simple. Platforms differ and it leaks into the language precisely because it is such a simple language. It is simple like HTML 1.0 is simple. It is simple like the Bill of Rights is simple. There are a limited set of rules but there a lot of undefined behavior as a result. I guess you believe HTML is complex because you have to understand CSS these days to do anything. 2. I find it interesting that you use what is clearly an edge case and then argue that because they are common it is not an edge case. The example of "int foo(char x) { char y = x; return ++x > y; }" is almost the textbook example of an edge case. Seriously, don't trust me. Ask around and see if you can find 10 people who know C well that would consider this mainstream (excluding embedded developers). There are countless serious bugs in real world C code because (a) there is so much damn real world C code and (b) it doesn't exactly protect from shooting yourself in the foot. My experience working with a big program that ran on Windows, 2-5 flavors of UNIX, and VMS (both DEC and Alpha) is that the bulk of the real world errors in C code do not have anything to do with undefined behavior across platforms. They have to do with memory management (null pointers, buffer overruns, etc) and poorly written macros. 3. I agree with you that adding optimizers introduce a whole set of things you have to hold in your head that push you into 'large' territory. Just like programming on a GPU makes you rethink everything about how you organize code and writing for embedded code has its own set of rules. But how does that make the language large? My point is that a language that says "we manage memory on your behalf inside of a VM" is doing a lot more for you. Boy, are we beating this thing to death or what... ... I like C quite a bit but I wouldn't want to make a living programming in it today. I drop back into C when I have a compute kernel that needs it but 99% of the code remains in C#. C is small but too simple for the problems that I'm solving today.