C's coverage of assembly : <p>In an argument with a friend, I made the remark that it is impossible to write, in any language besides C, a program that is faster than <em>all</em> variants in C, that do the same thing.  My argument was based on an affirmative answer to the question below.  Is it true?</p>

<ul>
<li>If we think of "compiling" as a map from [C programs] to [assembly programs], then is this map surjective?</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Caveat</strong>: Of course, you can include assembly in C programs, but pretend that isn't possible (makes for a more interesting question!).</p>
