On: The "C is Efficient" Language Fallacy (2006)

[wvenable]

> C lets you allocate blocks of memory

It doesn't even let you do that -- those things are external library calls.

[danieldk → wvenable]

The C99 standard specifies that the stdlib.h header should be provided with amongst other things malloc()/free(). So, C99 provides heap allocation functions.

Also, some people will argue that 'asking' an array on the stack is also allocation ;).

[derleth → wvenable]

They're standardized, so they are part of the language.

They don't have special syntax, but, then, neither does practically anything you do in Common Lisp, and that's standardized as well.

[stcredzero → derleth]

They're standardized, so they are part of the language.

"Language" has slightly different meanings in different contexts. Perhaps he's talking about something in a theoretic context, as opposed to practice? Smalltalk has no special syntax for allocation (creating new objects) either.

[derleth → stcredzero]

> Perhaps he's talking about something in a theoretic context, as opposed to practice?

Then he's still wrong. A standardized part of the language is a part of the language.