> could something similar also work in C without taking away that minimalism?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Reference_Counting
> could something similar also work in C without taking away that minimalism?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Reference_Counting
But since C doesn't have objects or messages, the best equivalent thing I can think of is for the C compiler to emit some type of signal on assignments and variables going out of scope.
I don't claim to know what's the best solution for adding automatic memory management to C, but I'm pretty sure a good one exists. And it would need compiler support for it to work.