Fil-C says it doing runtime checks which is fantastic for debug builds (like valgrind) but I worry a bit about performance with that for release builds. Valgrind can be pretty rough!

My personal view is that good C code looks a lot like Rust where ownership is clear and a borrow checker would approve. The mindset that Rust forces you into is the same one you should be using when writing C.

The longer-term concern is that, if you’re spending late nights learning Rust, it’s probably with the borrow checker. Late nights with C, it’s probably with memory management. One of those two is a bit more applicable to understanding computing at a deeper level.