Pointers Are More Abstract Than You Might Expect in C

Re:Pointers Are More Abstract Than You Might Expect in C by CyberDildonics on Monday July 02, 2018 @11:10AM (#17442297)

I feel like C++11 and Rust have shown a way forward and the C standard should focus on a design that takes into account ownership and protected arrays in a simple way, hopefully as backwards compatible as possible.

Maybe the solution is for the major compilers to default to strong static analysis.

Even though there are safe languages, the enormous integration and compatibility of C means that it isn't going anywhere soon, so I think even imperfect solutions can offer a lot if they are low hanging fruit.

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Re:Pointers Are More Abstract Than You Might Expect in C by pjmlp on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:49PM (#17443851)

It is a matter of mindset, multiple safe C variants have been attempted throughout the years.

Even lint was already available in 1979, yet hardly anyone used static analysis tools on C codebases.

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Re:Pointers Are More Abstract Than You Might Expect in C by CyberDildonics on Monday July 02, 2018 @05:31PM (#17445485)

Which is why I mentioned defaulting to strong static analysis. Having it as a separate tool or an unknown flag is not enough.

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