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Life & fun · April 15, 2026

Scope-structured arena memory for C, O(1) cleanup, no GC/borrow checker

Ariandel is a memory model where every heap object lives in a scope-owned arena. Scope exit resets the arena in O(1) — one bump pointer write and one free — regardless of how many objects were allocated. The safety default: allocating functions return ARENA_PTR handles (packed arena_id + offset integers), not raw pointers. A dangling pointer at a function return boundary is unconstructable by default. Cross-scope lifetime extension is explicit — you enter the target arena via SCOPE(ptr) before allocating, which routes the object into the outer arena without transferring ownership. Benchmarks…

Scope-structured arena memory for C, O(1) cleanup, no GC/borrow checker launched on April 15, 2026 with 5 votes, #1,846 of 21,248 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 9% of April 2026

What it does

Arena-based memory model for compiled languages — automatic O(1) heap reclamation at scope exit, no GC, no borrow checker, no manual frees. Allocation routing is resolved at compile time via user-defined lifetime scopes. Includes a C macro shim PoC and benchmarks. - hollow-arena/ariandel

Scope-structured arena memory model for compiled languages. Automatic O(1) heap reclamation at scope exit. No GC, no borrow checker, no manual frees. See SPEC.md for the full model specification. The Ariandel arena-scope memory model is being integrated and leveraged with the Darksign project, this repo will stay active for archival purposes, but may not reflect the latest changes available. Please check out Darksign for the latest additions and features. Compile ariandel_rt.c alongside your source and include ariandel.h : gcc your_program.c runtime/ariandel_rt.c -I runtime -std=c11 -o your_program Configuration REGISTRY_SIZE controls the arena pool capacity. Default is uint16_t (4,096…from github.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

Ariandel is a memory model where every heap object lives in a scope-owned arena. Scope exit resets the arena in O(1) — one bump pointer write and one free — regardless of how many objects were allocated. The safety default: allocating functions return ARENA_PTR handles (packed arena_id + offset integers), not raw…

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