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> In most languages (Java, Go, C#, Rust, Zig, OCaml, etc.) the process is reversed: you take a profiler to try and find allocations (usually in loops that happe
by Georgelemental 4mo ago
> In most languages (Java, Go, C#, Rust, Zig, OCaml, etc.) the process is reversed: you take a profiler to try and find allocations (usually in loops that happen millions of times). Then you go and eliminate or minimize the allocations.
This isn't fully correct. In Zig, the common pattern is that any function which allocates accepts an explicit allocator parameter; if you don't pass one explicitly, you don't get any heap allocations.
Rust doesn't make things quite that visible. But, if you restrict yourself to the standard library and crates designed with this in mind, allocations are usually not too hard to find. And you can always use `#![no_std]` without `alloc` if you want to be sure. Neither language is ever going to insert a heap allocation if it's not somewhere in the source.
- scritty-dev 4mo agocould you clarify for me, because isn't that a different guarantee? from my understanding, Rust and Zig make allocations explicit, but [@zero_alloc] lets you declare "this function (and everything it calls) must not allocate" and have compiler enforce it.
- wmedrano 4mo agoIf you don't pass an allocator param in Zig, then the function basically can't allocate.
- 3836293648 4mo agoNo, that's just a convention. Any function can just create a new allocator, or import the global one, or use malloc from libc. Zig does nothing to enforce this convention.
- scritty-dev 4mo agoisn't that more of a convention than an actual guarantee?
- eatonphil 4mo agoThey are indeed different. In Zig you might get the allocator via a struct field or just via importing the global allocator. const std = @import("std"); fn makeBuffer(n: usize) ![]u8 { return std.heap.page_allocator.alloc(u8, n); } Here are a few examples from the last release of Bun before the rewrite into Rust. https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/blob/bun-v1.3.14/src/install/dependency.zig#L447 https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/blob/bun-v1.3.14/src/install/... https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/blob/bun-v1.3.14/src/shell_parser/braces.zig#L388 https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/blob/bun-v1.3.14/src/shell_pa... The allocator via function parameter is only a convention and only even one convention. It is certainly a strong convention (throughout the standard library anyway) but it is just a convention. Recent Rust also has the ability to pass allocators but that's the same thing. And even if you use no_std in Rust you might call into some other library's no_std function that allocates and you wouldn't be able to grep for that.
- 3836293648 4mo agoThat's just not true. It's just a convention. You can assign the allocator to a global or use malloc from libc. The article is correct.