Re: [Vala] Memory safety

[Luca Bruno <lethalman88 gmail com>]

On 15/05/2014 10:18, Florian Weimer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> am I correct in assuming that Vala is supposed to inherit the lack of 
> memory safety from C?  Or put differently: If there is Vala code that 
> does not guard callers from memory safety violations but it could do 
> so, this is not a problem because callers are generally expected to 
> fulfill such (implicit) preconditions.
Vala inherits the problem of C, yes. You could certainly do some evil 
casts like in C. Vala however is certainly safer than C in many aspects, 
in other aspects however you have to know what you are doing and how 
Vala compiles down to C in certain cases.
For example:
1. func1(): create a local array
2. Call async func2(array) without waiting the function to finish
3. Return from func1
4. func2 runs with a dangling pointer to the array

Vala is not free of rough edges, it makes your life easier. But since a 
Vala array is a standard C array, it can't be referenced counted and 
that's why you get the above (unwanted from a newbie perspective) behavior.

Best regards