[dbaupp]

One can always write proper C programs without Valgrind: it is "just" a (really useful) debugging tool. The utility of it is that instead of spending days trying to track down any mallocs missing frees, one can just run Valgrind to find them and their locations straight away.

[babarock]

I guess what my grandparent said, albeit in a slightly dismissing tone, is that relying on tools like Valgrind or Purify to produce good code makes for weak programmers. The days spent trying to track down missing frees can be reduced to hours with practice, and the programmer skilled in this hunt is less likely to forget the free in the first place. (As opposed to the programmer relying on Valgrind and not caring much when writing the code the first time).

I do not necessarily abide by this point of view, but I do respect the kind of harsh discipline it advocates. Valgrind is definitely useful, really useful, but great C programs (and programmers) existed long before it appeared.

[antirez]

You should not be worried about this: even with valgrind a few bugs will take days of debugging to get fixed...

[prodigal_erik]

Even with Valgrind, I can't believe our industry has ever produced a single great C program. Certainly not Linux or TeX or GCC, all of which I've seen crash yet still had to use because everything else is even worse. Software engineering is still at the leeches-and-evil-spirits stage of maturity, and the continued use of platforms like C (where very common constructs can cause undefined behavior) is a symptom.