[versteegen]

You didn't say what the checkboxes are, but... perhaps the 'BetterC' subset of D? https://dlang.org/spec/betterc.html#retained

Or D itself if you don't need a language as minimal as C. D is basically C++ redesigned and now that GCC includes D support by default I wonder whether it'll gain popularity.

[flohofwoe]

Definitely an option, and D is actually one of the languages I haven't seriously looked into yet (or rather, I saw it as a C++ alternative in its heydays ca 2005 and that image stuck in my head - and at that time I hadn't been looking for a C++ alternative)

PS: my main use of C is currently to write platform abstraction libraries with minimal size and runtime overhead, so need to talk directly to operating system APIs, plus WASM is a very important target. The libraries must be usable from other languages via automatic bindings generation (quite simple with a C API). Also for performance-oriented stuff, direct control over memory layout and lifetimes please.

Also personal opinion from 20 years of C++ experience: high level abstractions never pay off in the long run. Simple imperative code always wins when it comes to "malleability".