C doesn't make for an optimal backend, due to issues like: - no proper tail calls - no way to cheaply check if arithmetic has overflowed, so performant arbitr

C doesn't make for an optimal backend, due to issues like: - no proper tail calls - no way to cheaply check if arithmetic has overflowed, so performant arbitrary-precision integers are hard to implement - hard to find GC roots on C stack C-- is a better portable assembly language that was designed for such purposes. http://www.cminusminus.org/ http://www.cminusminus.org/ Unfortunately it looks like it hasn't found wider adoption (except for GHC), similar to MLRISC.