Automatic arrays and intrinsic array operations: to use or not to use?

[zaikunzhang]

@certik

I use automatic arrays whenever possible.

It’s the compiler job to make sure it does not run out of stack and not segfault. I am aware of the fact that many compilers will just segfault for larger arrays, but to me, from the user’s perspective, that seems like a bug in the compiler.

Great to know this! I take exactly the same point of view. I hope many others share this view as well.

@certik

In the worst case the compiler can allocate them on the heap, which should not be slower than using allocate, but there might be faster options, such as inserting some quick check when the function runs if it is going to run out of stack. I guess there are two issues:

• Nice error messages instead of a segfault when we run out of stack (applies for infinite recursion as well)
• Actually allowing to use larger arrays that would not fit into stack

This is exactly what I hope.