The person you're responding to has a history of hating on C around here. I wouldn't take what he wrote personally (easier said than done, I know). That said, I offer the following:

Almost any language can be (ab)used in an "unsafe" manner. Conversely, it is entirely possible to create elegant, efficient, and safe code using C, and there is no particular reason to not use C for this project. In fact, C is marvelous in its simplicity and is an excellent candidate for it.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd put my skill with C++ around a 6 or 7. For C I'd go lower, around 3 or 4. I appreciate the work you put into this, and I intend to read your book to help me improve my skills with C.

So thanks for your effort.