> for some values of "king" perhaps - perhaps it's faster to compile, but no arrays of varying ... Well, let's not change the goalpost - your initial assertion

> for some values of "king" perhaps - perhaps it's faster to compile, but no arrays of varying ... Well, let's not change the goalpost - your initial assertion was that C has faster compile times. Then chances are that something's got to give, whether that is in the grammar, declaration order, etc.