Why C/C++ is a good language to write system software

[jonah104]

This is an essay question that I've been set at university and I'm finding it hard to find any literature on it, is there any no who could point me in the right direction??

[petrib]

It is good (or essential), if the operating system itself was written in C/C++.

If the OS is written in some other language than C/C++, then C/C++ probably isn't that good a system software language on that particular OS (whatever it is).

However, the general reason why C/C++ is due to pointers and bit operations, simply put. If you can't manipulate content (registers) and tweak individual bits easily, low-level programming becomes hard(er).