[drjeats]

> Then why do my data structures detect if I go out of bounds?

Because you have iterator debugging and/or assertions turned on and are only using non-primitive data structures (e.g. std::vector, std::array).

Zig does the thing that Rust and Go do where it makes the primary primitive for pointers to chunks of memory (slices) bounds checked. You can opt out with optimization settings, but I think most programs will build in "safe release" mode unless they're very confident in their test coverage.

It's strictly better than C++, because in practice codebases are passing lots of `(data, len)` params around no matter how strongly you emphasize in your style guide to use `std::span`. The path of least resistance in Zig, including the memory allocator interface, bundles in language-level bounds checking.

[SleepyMyroslav]

>I think most programs will build in "safe release" mode

Do you have any citations to support this 'safe release' theory? Like there are not many Zig applications and not many of them document their decisions. One i could find [1] does not mention safe anywhere.

1. https://ghostty.org/docs/install/build

[drjeats]

Ghostty is trying to be a speed demon terminal, so I'd expect it to use ReleaseFast.

The current build system docs don't prioritize one build mode over another:

https://ziglang.org/learn/build-system/

> Standard optimization options allow the person running zig build to select between Debug, ReleaseSafe, ReleaseFast, and ReleaseSmall. By default none of the release options are considered the preferable choice by the build script, and the user must make a decision in order to create a release build.

But for more opinionated recommendations, ReleaseSafe is clearly favored:

https://zig.news/kristoff/how-to-release-your-zig-applicatio...

> ReleaseSafe should be considered the main mode to be used for releases: it applies optimizations but still maintains certain safety checks (eg overflow and array out of bound) that are absolutely worth the overhead when releasing software that deals with tricky sources of input (eg, the internet).

https://zighelp.org/chapter-3/

> Users are recommended to develop their software with runtime safety enabled, despite its small speed disadvantage.

If you could somehow collect real-world data, the overwhelming majority of Zig programs aren't released and have likely only made debug builds :P