[JKCalhoun]

Was C ever much more than a veneer on top of assembler?

Don't get me wrong, it's why I like C.

[adwn]

> Was C ever much more than a veneer on top of assembler?

Maybe in the very early days, but that necessarily had to end as soon as compilers started doing non-trivial optimizations. Today, C is very far from being "portable assembly".