Maybe provide a concrete example instead of making vague accusations. Or rather, please not, it is not a useful discourse. A productive response to my comment would be an insightful explanation of how byte-level access to memory objects is done in other languages.

> That is how many in C circles

Being able to find someone who's made the argument you're rebutting doesn't make it not a straw man. What matters is whether the person you're arguing with is making the argument.

Specifically this:

> When other languages have compiler specific extensions beyond the spec, it is a failure in their design.

Is not a point I've seen anyone here make.