alt Hacker NewsRegarding memory, I recently changed to try to not use dynamic memory, or if I need to, to do it once at startup. Often static memory on startup is sufficient.
Instead use the stack much more and have a limit on how much data the program can handle fixed on startup. It adds the need to think what happens if your system runs out of memory.
Like OP said, it's not a solution for all types of programs. But it makes for very stable software with known and easily tested error states. Also adds a bit of fun in figuring out how to do it.
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thisoneisreal • today at 1:02 AM
I've been looking into Ada recently and it has cool safety mechanisms to encourage this same kind of thing. It even allows you to dynamically allocate on the stack for many cases.
In recent years I had to write some firmware code with C and that was exactly the approach I took. So far I never had need for any dynamic memory and I was surprised how far I can get without it.