Pointers are perhaps a more technical feature. Switch and case, the latter a more general version of switch, are universal.
Repeat n times is universal. While it is trivial to implement with other constructs, it as an annoyance and distraction that is easily fixed. Now you will probably say it is possible to do without loops at all, or without selecting from one of multiple execution paths (by using functional approaches). I suggest that such features just make life a little simpler. (And make writing an efficient interpreter a little bit easier.) -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
