It has pointers and pointer arithmetic. Pointing into the stack, allocating buffers on the stack (and the resulting decades of stack smashing attacks that came with it). Most languages don't have an underlying model of a flat memory that you can just randomly point at and write things; they have objects and data types and functions that aren't meant to be pointed at (and usually cannot).
replyah so other languages emulate harvard to a degree. I wonder if performance could improve by reimplementing a C like language based on a von neumann abstract machine inspired by something other than a PDP. thanks for your response
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