[pjmlp]

Nothing of that is written in pure C, as per ISO C standard.

Rather they rely on a mix of C compiler language extensions, inline or external Assembly written helpers functions, which any language compiled language also has available, when going out of the standard goes.

[theamk]

I think you are being nitpicky here.

When most people say "I write in C", they don't mean abstract ISO C standard, with the possibility of CHAR_BIT=9. They mean "C for my machine" - so C with compiler extensions, assumptions about memory model, and yes, occasional inline assembly.

[pjmlp]

I am, because people making C something special that it isn't.

Other languages share the same features.

[rramadass]

That is not an argument. ANSI/ISO C standardizes hardware-independent parts of the language but at some point you have to meet the hardware. The concept of a "implementation platform" (i.e. cpu arch + OS + ABI) is well known for all language runtimes.

All apps using the above-mentioned are written in standard ANSI/ISO C. The implementation themselves are "system level" code and hence have Language/HW/OS specific extensions which is standard practice when interfacing with low-level code.

> any language compiled language also has available

In theory yes, but in practice never to the ease nor flexibility with which you can use C for the job. This is what people mean when they say "C is close to the metal" or "C is a high-level assembly language".

[pjmlp]

It is, because C is nothing special, those features are available in other languages.

Proven before C was even a dream at AT&T, and by all other OS vendors outside Bell Labs using other systems languages.

Then people get to argue C can X, yeah provided it is the Compiler XYZ C dialect.

[rramadass]

Not quite.

C took off because system programmers could not do with other languages what they wanted, with the ease and flexibility that C offered.

Having a feature in a language is not the same as how easy it is to span hardware, OS and application in the same language and runtime.

[pjmlp]

Not really.

C took off because it was free, shipped alongside with an operating system that initially was available for a symbolic price, as AT&T was forbidden to take advantage of UNIX.

Had UNIX been a commercial operating system, with additional licenses for the C compiler, like every other operating systems outside Bell Labs, we would not be even talking about C in 2026.

[rramadass]

Being easily affordable/available in those times was the initial "hook" but C's subsequent and sustained success was due to a happy confluence of various design decisions.

Not too high-level, Not too low-level, easy access to memory/ISA, simple abstract machine, being imperative procedural, spanning bare-metal/OS/app, adopted by free software movement producing free compilers/tools, becoming de-facto industry standard ABI etc. all were crucial in its rise to power.

Note that its main competitor at that time, Pascal; lost out in spite of being simpler, having clean high-level features, promoted by academia, safety focused etc.

As Dennis Ritchie himself said in "The Development of the C Language" (https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist...);

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success. While accidents of history surely helped, it evidently satisfied a need for a system implementation language efficient enough to displace assembly language, yet sufficiently abstract and fluent to describe algorithms and interactions in a wide variety of environments.