> Most graduates of Computer Science programs can, perhaps with some trouble, implement a half decent C compiler in a weekend or two. This is not a footnote. This fact alone means that for any given piece of hardware you're more likely to find a random C compiler you can use than anything else.
I think C being a (relatively) very simple is indeed a feature it has - however not so much because you can make a compiler for it easily (not that it isn't a pro, but it isn't that important in practice) but because it means it is easier to learn and easier to write tools for.
Took me 6 years to implement my own in C. It ended up being python with braces. Recursive descent parser are incredibly brittle and take extreme concentration and patience
I think C being a (relatively) very simple is indeed a feature it has - however not so much because you can make a compiler for it easily (not that it isn't a pro, but it isn't that important in practice) but because it means it is easier to learn and easier to write tools for.