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> Why not a plain C which is an obvious choice?

Because manual memory management is a PITA.

> And of course, using a VM-hosted language to describe things which are on two levels of abstraction lower is a little bit funny.

Why? As long as you're clear that it's a pedagogical tool, it's perfectly fine. And there are incubation OSes (e.g. Singularity) that are almost entirely managed.




We're talking about simplicity and clarity of language's syntax? Why memory management?

btw, to whom memory management is a PITA?


> We're talking about simplicity and clarity of language's syntax? Why memory management?

Both the syntax and the semantics are nicer.

> btw, to whom memory management is a PITA?

To anyone who tries to do it. That automatic memory management is easier to program with than manual memory management is self-evident.




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