[tgflynn]

Type safety and encapsulation are distinct issues. The Linux kernel uses many well-encapsulated interfaces but it's written in C and the typing reflects that limitation.

Personally I haven't used straight C in years and would never choose it over C++ unless platform constraints required it, but a vast amount of very complex software has been and continues to be written in C, including all the widely used OS kernels, so I don't find it very surprising that a new feature in a very old piece of software would be written in it.