Type-safe generic data structures in C
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Type-safe generic data structures in C
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Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#2A much more simple alternative way of doing this is to use stretchy buffers.
Here's an example of a dynamic array in C in about 20 lines: http://nothings.org/stb/stretchy_buffer.txt
And here's a friendly explanation of how this technique works: https://ourmachinery.com/post/minimalist-container-library-i...
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#3Header only implementations of data structures are definitely the only way to accomplish type-safe generics in C, which is a great reason to avoid C! It's part of the reason why all C code bases eventually become a kind of unique, macro filled language of their own once they grow complex enough. It's not enough to know C to start working on this code, you have to know all the ins and outs of the weird macro expansions that form the boilerplate patterns and are unique to this codebase only.
Apart from being a pain in the ass to write (don't forget your escape slashes (\) for line endings!), using these macros makes debugging much harder - you no longer have a stack trace (although GDB is fairly smart about this, it's still less than ideal).
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#4A much more simple alternative way of doing this is to use stretchy buffers. Here's an example of a dynamic array in C in about 20 lines: http://nothings.org/stb/stretchy_buffer.txt And here's a friendly explanation of how this technique works: https://ourmachinery.com/post/minimalist-container-library-i...
But this entirely misses the "type safe" part...
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#5Why would anyone use this when there is C++, Rust, etc? Genuinely curious.
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#6Header only implementations of data structures are definitely the only way to accomplish type-safe generics in C, which is a great reason to avoid C! It's part of the reason why all C code bases eventually become a kind of unique, macro filled language of their own once they grow complex enough. It's not enough to know C to start working on this code, you have to know all the ins and outs of the weird macro expansion…
To add - the preprocessor is a pretty dated thing that merely uses text substitution, so you have no easy way to debug the code that the preprocessor passes to the compiler. Defines such as function-like macros throw away type safety and can have extremely unexpected behavior. For example, you might think this code will do what you want.
#define SQ(x) x*x
cout cout Macros are pretty much entirely unnecessary and should be avoided. Compilers inline nowadays, so you don’t really gain anything from using a macro when you could have just made a function that gives you type safety and intuitive behavior. If you are trying to define constants, use const, enum, or enum classes. If you are trying to define multiple versions of the same function, use polymorphism or templates. If you are trying to wrap around arbitrary code, use lambdas.
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#7Off topic: the top of the page call to action to sign up for updates would normally be a distraction but the checkboxes that define your intended audiences make me feel like you know how important it is to keep your content targeted without being annoying. Thanks, that's cool, also you offer an alternative via RSS right in the call to action, so I'm not suspicious that you want my email for any other reason, not that I normally would, but it's become an instinct at this point :)
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#8Why would anyone use this when there is C++, Rust, etc? Genuinely curious.
C is still, I have to imagine, the closest thing we have to a language available for all platforms that exist today, while C++ is heavily burdened with featuritis and Rust is limited in platform support.
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#9Author here. I wish I had made it clearer that the intent of the post was "this is an interesting and surprising thing you can achieve in C" and not "this is a good idea for a real software project" or "this is a reason to use C instead of C++/Rust/Go".
Re: Type-safe generic data structures in C
#10A much more simple alternative way of doing this is to use stretchy buffers. Here's an example of a dynamic array in C in about 20 lines: http://nothings.org/stb/stretchy_buffer.txt And here's a friendly explanation of how this technique works: https://ourmachinery.com/post/minimalist-container-library-i...
Say no to masqueraded pointers! They require a specific coding convention that can't be checked by compilers since it is effectively a linear (or affine if you are pedantic) type. Put in the other way, masqueraded pointers make many otherwise non-destructive operations destructive without you realizing.