I agree with his statement - however in a public forum, one needs to add some fire resistant padding like "programming language when properly used" or "a valid program". C like many languages (including FORTH :-) has loopholes where one can create program which invoke undefined behaviour, however these constructs generally exist in the real world only at the hand of someone very new to the language, or intentially contriving an "example". Generally speaking, a programming language is more succinct, clear and unambiguous than many other forms of abstraction - the fact that it is possible to abuse it to other ends in specific cases does not invalidate that claim. and for historical reasons. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html