> On 29 Apr 2016, at 22:31 , Diane Bruce <d...@db.net> wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 02:23:55PM -0600, Eric Smith wrote: >> On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 12:59 PM, Ian S. King <isk...@uw.edu> wrote: >>> C is a lot like that saw - it doesn't have a lot of guards on it, and you >>> can do stupid things. >> >> The problem is that C doesn't just allow you to do stupid things, it's >> actively encouraged. C doesn't just let you aim at your foot, it >> defaults to aiming at your foot. >> >> C is not bad as a fairly portable assembly language, but it is NOT a >> high-level language. > > Yes it is known as a high level assembler.
Taking this a bit further: C++ is an object-oriented, high-level assembler. Java is an object-oriented, high-level assembler with support wheels. C# is an object-oriented, high-level assembler with support wheels that are not interchangeable with those of Java. At least C is a useful language for coding the lowest level of Lisp implementations :-)