I don't really mean to defend C (though I rather like it, despite its many flaws). I only meant to point out the wisdom (which I recall reading in the K&R) of

I don't really mean to defend C (though I rather like it, despite its many flaws). I only meant to point out the wisdom (which I recall reading in the K&R) of this idea that "taking away" features might make it easier to read and debug -- and maybe even write -- programs. In fact, Scheme is a sterling example of that very principle (relative to, say, Common Lisp, and I would argue of Clojure as well). I agree with you about Scheme, which is a very minimalistic, wonderful, eminently readable, "one way to do it" language. But Clojure has something that Scheme doesn't: a massive set of libraries. C has that as well. That, of course, is a different subject entirely . . .