Worst ideas/features in programming languages?

[bachmeier]

On Monday, 11 October 2021 at 15:59:10 UTC, Atila Neves wrote:
> I'm brainstorming about what I'll talk about at DConf, and 
> during a conversation with Walter I thought it might be cool to 
> talk about:
>
> * Worst features implemented in a non-toy language

C's pointer notation is too stupid for words. (I understand how 
it works. I've been using it for decades. Please no explanations.)

Writing functions like this is horrible:

```
int timesTwo(int *x) {
	return 2 * *x;
}
```

When you learn C, you ask what the `*x` is. It's an int. That 
makes sense. That's why it's `int *x`. Okay, let's call that 
function:

```
int main() {
	printf("%d\n", timesTwo(4));
	return 0;
}
```

`expected ‘int *’ but argument is of type ‘int’`

Okay, let's try this:

```
int main() {
	int z = 4;
	printf("%d\n", timesTwo(&z));
	return 0;
}
```

`8`

So `*x` is an int, but you have to pass `&z`, which is not an 
int, as the argument. The only way this can't be confusing to 
someone learning it for the first time is if they're memorizing 
syntax.