Even in Modula the dev is responsible for memory managment, but back then for me the tipping factor was bounds checking for array.
SafeArray had not happened - at least for me, when I became aware of them I had created a large system and ported it already across OS' twice and language once.
Java came about a decade to late ;-)

>Most likely mastered it. I did C/C++ for a short time and hated it. There should be no reason to have to manage every byte these days unless you want to. You also shouldn't have to worry about different types of strings. And dealing with pointers they way you have to is crazy. Compilers and hardware are so much better today.
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>>I often wonder what would have happened to me if I had started the first long stretch of programming not along the Pascal/Modula line but with C and C++.
>>Every time I have to drop down to coding in C or even read stretches of C++, which happens seldom (but the Pascal/Modula line is totally dead) it still feels like an uphill battle. Would I have mastered it or be a basket case by now?