Reducing undefined behavior in the C language

Martin Uecker, a biomedical engineering professor who works on free software for MRI scanners, discussed why C remains a valuable programming language despite its age, highlighting its portability, stability, fast compilation, and transparency. He explained that undefined behavior in C stems from the language's design, which uses an abstract machine model to ensure portability across diverse hardware by giving compiler implementers freedom in how they achieve observable behavior. The challenge lies in balancing C's flexibility and performance with the need to reduce undefined behavior and potentially move toward a memory-safe language.