[jacquesm]

Not really. For a long time C was a perfectly legitimate choice. The 'wrongs' of C have only really come to light with widespread usage of the Internet and the much higher focus on security. Back in the day people working with computers weren't necessarily doing so to make a quick buck, hose your system or to try to see if they could do damage. The bulk of the people working with computers was trying hard to produce something useful instead of to deconstruct that which was already there in a malicious way.

The parasites came long after C.

[mamcx]

Even then, you have better options (main one: pascal).

P.D: My main gripe is not about why C was made how is made. Is that it STAY like that until now. It must have been deprecating dangerous stuff long ago...

[jacquesm]

I've used both. C over Pascal any day, warts included.

[deterministic]

Nope Pascal was never a real competitor to C. I have programmed serious software using both languages and I would never pick Pascal over C.

[peterashford]

Disagree. Pascal was no more safe than C