What's C's biggest mistake?

[Sean Kelly]

Walter Bright Wrote:

> Sean Kelly wrote:
> > On seeing this title I was going to interject "using pointers to
> > represent arrays!" but it seems you beat me to it.  This is
> > definitely the biggest problem with C.
> 
> Also here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1014533
> 
> I find the responses to be very curious, particularly the "not in the 
> spirit of C" ones. Then there are the ones who deny that this even is an 
> actual problem in C code.

I'd be inclined to think most of these people are students or hobbyist programmers.  I couldn't imagine someone using C professionally and having this attitude.  Though there are certainly a lot of language lawyer wannabes on the NGs, so who knows.

> It reminds me of why I decided to work on D rather than keep pushing on 
> those ropes.

And the programming community is better for it!