And I wrote a firmware in C for 4-quadrant torque control in about the same time. I do not have any formal proof on how buggy/or not it is but the thing runs properly for 10 years already. If that is not "production code" I do not know what is. I am not inexperienced programmer. Rather quite opposite. But this was after I did not touch C and any microcontrollers for like 10 years.
I feel like C is somewhat manageable on microcontrollers. Programs tend to be smaller (micro!), you can often do static allocation which mitigates a lot of the memory management issues, and you're also often dealing with simple types and bit manipulation which is where C shines.
In larger programs on full-fat operating systems, programs tend to be much larger (esp. if you include libraries - dealing with libraries being one of the most complex things in C), and you have to deal with sophisticated allocation patterns, and complex types (webs of pointers), abstractions and business logic which is where C basically leaves you on your own and provides very little in terms of structure or guard rails.
This is how I’ve started to think about things too. If every program was authored by a single individual and was relatively small, C would already be the perfect programming language. All the advanced safety features of competitors really only become relevant once you introduce scale.
