In the end it all boils to a very simple argument. The C programmers want the C compilers to behave one way, the C implementers want the C compilers to behave the other way. Since the power structure is what it is — the C implementers are the ones who write the C standard and are the ones who actually get to implement the C compilers — the C compilers do, and will, behave the way the C implementers want them to.

In this situation the C programmers can either a) accept that they're programming in a language that exists as it exists, not as they'd like it to exist; b) angrily deny a); or c) switch to some other system-level language with defined semantics.

Another alternative is that the programmer write their own C compiler and be free of this politics. Maybe I am biased since I am working on exactly such a project, but I have been seeing more and more in-progress compiler implementations for C or a C-like language for the past couple years.

> behave the way the C implementers want them to

If you don't please your users, you won't have any users.

How about we agree on the ABI and everyone can have their own C compiler. Everyone C's the world through their own lenses.