I believe what programmers actually want is clean dialect-free C with sidecar files.
It seems people pretty universally dislike type annotations and overly verbose comments, like Ruby's YARD or Java's Javadoc. Also, if your new language doesn't compile with a standard C compiler, kernel usage is probably DOA. That means you want to keep the source code pure C and store additional data in an additional file. That additional file would then contain stuff like pointer type annotations, object lifecycle and lifetime hints, compile-time eval hints, and stuff to make the macros type safe. Ideally, your tool can then use the C code and the sidecar file together to prove that the C code is bug-free and that pointers are handled correctly. That would make your language as safe as Rust to use.
The hardcore C kernel folks can then just look at the C code and be happy. And you and your users use a special IDE to modify the C code and the sidecar file simultaneously, which unlocks all the additional language features. But as soon as you hit save, the editor converts its internal representation back into plain C code. That means, technically, the sidecar file and your IDE are a fancy way of transpiling from whatever you come up with to pure C.
It seems people pretty universally dislike type annotations and overly verbose comments, like Ruby's YARD or Java's Javadoc. Also, if your new language doesn't compile with a standard C compiler, kernel usage is probably DOA. That means you want to keep the source code pure C and store additional data in an additional file. That additional file would then contain stuff like pointer type annotations, object lifecycle and lifetime hints, compile-time eval hints, and stuff to make the macros type safe. Ideally, your tool can then use the C code and the sidecar file together to prove that the C code is bug-free and that pointers are handled correctly. That would make your language as safe as Rust to use.
The hardcore C kernel folks can then just look at the C code and be happy. And you and your users use a special IDE to modify the C code and the sidecar file simultaneously, which unlocks all the additional language features. But as soon as you hit save, the editor converts its internal representation back into plain C code. That means, technically, the sidecar file and your IDE are a fancy way of transpiling from whatever you come up with to pure C.