C doesn’t have objects, which are great for encapsulating data structures, but in C++ it’s not at all hard to write a graph data structure.
One wraps it behind a reliable interface, writes automated test and runs them under valgrind/sanitizers and that’s pretty much it.
It’s normal for life and software development to have a certain degree of risk and to spend some effort solving problems.
Too many HN comments make it sound like it’s a jungle out there and a use-after-free will chop your head clean off.
I don't mean to imply that writing a graph in C++ is impossible. It's clearly possible in modern C++.
My contention is treating indicies-based management as some tedious, manual workaround. Unity's ECS is written in C#, which has both a GC and the language expressiveness for an actual graph objects, but has adopted an indicies based system. It works, and is performant, so it isn't a mistake for the compiler to herd users down that path.
In a similar vein, the Linux codebase is full of completely legitimate and readable uses of goto, but we are perfectly happy with languages that force us to use structured control flow.
One wraps it behind a reliable interface, writes automated test and runs them under valgrind/sanitizers and that’s pretty much it.
It’s normal for life and software development to have a certain degree of risk and to spend some effort solving problems. Too many HN comments make it sound like it’s a jungle out there and a use-after-free will chop your head clean off.