[hurril]

I guess that depends on what goals you have in mind. If they are producing a correct program, then having the compiler verify your assumptions, forcing you do deal with domain complexity upfront is one way to do that. Tests( driven development) is another one.

But in this context I feel that partial solutions are offered as alternatives to more complete ones. I.e.: if holes in your trousers is of no concern, then having tools to avoid that is of no value.

Not picking on C here, as already mentioned, it is a wonderful language.

[uecker]

In my experience is it also possible to avoid most holes in the trousers easily with C as well and not just by testing. For example, it is also often possible to build safe abstractions by designing an API around an incomplete type etc.

[hurril]

C is turing complete so of course. You can do anything with C but that is not the issue we are discussing here.