I disagree that any of those things are even slightly material to the topic. It's like saying my car is fundamentally different from a 1972 model because it has ABS, airbags, and a satnav.

Reply due to rate limiting:

K&R didn't know about CI/CD, but everything else you mention has either existed for over 30 years or is too trivial to argue about.

Conversely, if you took Claude Code or similar tools back to 1996, they would grab a crucifix and scream for an exorcist.

You said C developers are doing things the "same old way" as always.

I think you're taking for granted the massive productivity boost that happened even before today's era of LLM agents.