> The appeal of C is that you're just operating on raw memory ... why everything has an address, or why pointer arithmetic is so natural
That is just an illusion to trip unsuspecting programmers who have false mental models. Pointers are not addresses, and pointer arithmetic is rife with pitfalls. There is the whole pointer provenance thing, but that's more like the tip of the iceberg.
That is really the problem with C; it feels like you can do all sorts of stuff, but in reality you are just invoking nasal demons. The real rules on what you can and can not do are far more intricate and arcane, and nothing about them is very obvious on the surface level.
That is just an illusion to trip unsuspecting programmers who have false mental models. Pointers are not addresses, and pointer arithmetic is rife with pitfalls. There is the whole pointer provenance thing, but that's more like the tip of the iceberg.
That is really the problem with C; it feels like you can do all sorts of stuff, but in reality you are just invoking nasal demons. The real rules on what you can and can not do are far more intricate and arcane, and nothing about them is very obvious on the surface level.