 <p>This one is sure to get a lot of opinionated responses. :-)</p> <p>C:</p> <ol> <li>does only and exactly what you want, without side-effects</li> <li>is even closer to the CPU</li> <li>is often available on systems where c++ is not</li> <li>is very close to other languages used for low-level interactions, like ORCAD and other chip-burning systems</li> <li>is often the basis for a lot of legacy code that won't compile under c++</li> </ol> <p>C++:</p> <ol> <li>has powerful object orientation</li> <li>has templates</li> <li>has more recent optimizations in the compiler, put together by the world smartest programmers</li> <li>has more high-level libraries already available, i.e. the std libs and even higher-level things</li> </ol> <p>If I missed something really obvious, I'm sure there will be no end to the people who will correct me. :-)</p>