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Comment by bjackman | original | C for Rust programmers
[−]bjackman · 2026-10-11 Sun 09:36 UTC · link
Sorry but no, this is totally wrong. There is no set of compiler flags or design practices that can fix the lack of lifetime analysis in C.

I do actually think that with modern C++ it's possible to get to a style of programming where memory unsafety is mostly a theoretical concern but not with C.

[−]uecker · 2026-10-11 Sun 09:38 UTC · link
It is true that you will not get full lifetime analysis with a C compiler, I do not think this defeats my point. (and you can get lifetime analysis with other tools, but we lack good tooling for this)

For me, memory safety is also mostly a theoretical concern in C. This is achieved by having proper abstractions instead of low-level pointer fiddling and by having a clear strategy for managing lifetimes.