defer is literally just an explicit RAII in this example. That is, it's just unnecessary boiler plate to wrap the newResource handle into a struct in this context.
In addition, RAII has it's own complexities that need to be dealt with now, i.e. move semantics, which obviously C does not have nor will it likely ever.
> RAII has it's own complexities that need to be dealt with now, i.e. move semantics, which obviously C does not have nor will it likely ever.
In the example above, the question of "do I put defer before or after the `if err != nil` check" is deferred to the programmer. RAII forces you to handle the complexity, defer lets you shoot yourself in the foot.
In addition, RAII has it's own complexities that need to be dealt with now, i.e. move semantics, which obviously C does not have nor will it likely ever.