&gt; while not exploding in your face like C<p>not a fan of C++ but I personally think having to wade through the building blocks of C was an immensely valuable reverse turing test (ability of human to exhibit human-like behavior? apparently this term is already taken but you get my idea) and I bemoan the future where everyone is protected from their mistakes. How else did one build motivation to do it right? The gamble of a mistake is much more fun than of a compiler error.