Yes, C is another good example. The language is fairly small, and it's not terribly difficult to learn the language itself and write your own programs. But to be able to look at an arbitrary piece of C code and understand all of the implications is another matter entirely.

This is true of any language to some degree, although some are worse than others, and if the code was purposefully written in some non-traditional way it can be even harder.

It is most certainly not true about C++.

Touche'; I should have grouped my sentences differently. C++ is not a small, easy-to-learn language.

I'm reminded of Duff's Device http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff%27s_device

  send(to, from, count)
  register short *to, *from;
  register count;
  {
    register n = (count + 7) / 8;
    switch (count % 8) {
    case 0: do { *to = *from++;
    case 7:      *to = *from++;
    case 6:      *to = *from++;
    case 5:      *to = *from++;
    case 4:      *to = *from++;
    case 3:      *to = *from++;
    case 2:      *to = *from++;
    case 1:      *to = *from++;
               } while (--n > 0);
    }
  }