>>4You seem to be missing the
>and also efficient enough to compete with custom code
Portable code was doable, but platform-specific code always beat it.
C was dominating all platforms because it beat their compilers at their own turf:speed and memory use. Back in 70's/80's this was the ultimate argument and platform-specific stuff slowly died with new standards and x86 processors getting to the top(486 was a breakthrough processor that made performance affordable for the average joe. I still remember playing Red Alert on it).