I do (type-safe) container types in C
12 days ago
- #type safety
- #C programming
- #container types
- The article discusses different approaches to implementing type-safe container types in C.
- Martin Uecker's method uses macros to define generic containers but has issues with complex types and cryptic error messages.
- Daniel Hooper's approach uses unnamed unions to avoid complex type issues but requires typedefs for type equivalence.
- The author's preferred method involves a base implementation of the data structure and macros to define new types, using C11's _Generic for type safety.
- The author's method allows for type-safe operations like pushing elements into a vector and retrieving them, with some limitations.
- This technique has been successfully applied to various data structures like Hashmaps and Queues.
- The author plans to rewrite their primary queue implementation using this method for type safety.