In comparison to Java, for example. Java specifies integer and float semantics exactly, including what happens for things like over/underflow and division by ze

In comparison to Java, for example. Java specifies integer and float semantics exactly, including what happens for things like over/underflow and division by zero. C leaves too much to be decided by the compiler writer or ABI. Buffer overflows aren't the only problem C has. For an interesting discussion and examples of bad behavior that C allows, please take a look at [1] (especially part 2 of that series) and [2] (yes, some of these are compiler shenanigans; the problem is that the C standard allows the compiler to go crazy). 1 - http://blog.llvm.org/2011/05/what-every-c-programmer-should-know.html http://blog.llvm.org/2011/05/what-every-c-programmer-should-... 2 - http://blog.regehr.org/archives/213 http://blog.regehr.org/archives/213