{"id":10303,"date":"2023-03-12T09:58:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T08:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/?p=10303"},"modified":"2023-03-12T09:58:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T08:58:04","slug":"modern-c-replacements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2023\/03\/12\/modern-c-replacements\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern C replacements?"},"content":{"rendered":"

These days I was just wondering if anyone has compiled a list of “Modern C replacement” languages when Slashdot almost read my mind:<\/p>\n

Meet Zig: the Modern Alternative to the C Programming Language – Slashdot<\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Systems-oriented developers already have programming languages like C, C++, Rust, and Go, notes InfoWorld<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But now, “we also have Zig, a newer language that seeks to absorb what’s best about these languages and offer comparable performance with a better, more reliable developer experience.” Zig is a very active project<\/a>. It was started by Andrew Kelley<\/a> in 2015 and now seems to be reaching critical mass. Zig’s ambition is rather momentous in software history: to become the heir to C’s longstanding reign as both the go-to portable low-level language and as a standard to which other languages are compared….<\/p>\n

Currently, Zig is being used to implement the Bun.js JavaScript runtime<\/a> as an alternative to Node.js. Bun’s creator Jarred Sumner told me “Zig is sort of similar to writing C, but with better memory safety features in debug mode and modern features like defer (sort of similar to Go’s) and arbitrary code can be executed at compile-time via comptime<\/em>. It has very few keywords so it’s a lot easier to learn than C++ or Rust.”<\/p>\n

Zig differs from most other languages in its small feature footprint, which is the outcome of an explicit design goal: Only one obvious way to do things<\/em>. Zig’s developers take this goal so much to heart that for a time, Zig had no for loop<\/a>, which was deemed an unnecessary syntactic elaboration upon the already adequate while loop. Kevin Lynagh, coming from a Rust background, wrote<\/a>, “The language is so small and consistent that after a few hours of study I was able to load enough of it into my head to just do my work.” Nathan Craddock, a C developer, echoed the sentiment<\/a>. Programmers seem to really like the focused quality of Zig’s syntax.<\/i>
\nWhile Zig is “approaching<\/a>” production-ready status, the article notes its high degree of interoperability with C and C++, its unique error-handling system, and its elimination of a malloc<\/em> keyword (leaving memory allocation to the standard library).<\/p>\n

“For now, the Zig team appears to be taking its time with the 1.0 release, which may drop in 2025 or later<\/a> \u2014 but none of that stops us from building all sorts of things with the language today.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These days I was just wondering if anyone has compiled a list of “Modern C replacement” languages when Slashdot almost read my mind: Meet Zig: the Modern Alternative to the C Programming Language – Slashdot<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6daft-2Gb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8158,"url":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2021\/02\/07\/the-v-programming-language\/","url_meta":{"origin":10303,"position":0},"title":"The V Programming Language","author":"Paolo Redaelli","date":"2021-02-07","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just read \"Is Zig the long awaited C replacement\" and it cites: The V Programming Language seems to be a \"fastly compiling\" language. Compilation speed benchmark C 5.2s gcc test.c C++ 1m 25s g++ test.cpp Zig 10.1s zig build-exe test.zig Nim 45s nim c test.nim Rust Stopped after 30\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comparisons"","block_context":{"text":"Comparisons","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/category\/comparisons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8181,"url":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2023\/03\/12\/replacing-c\/","url_meta":{"origin":10303,"position":1},"title":"Replacing C","author":"Paolo Redaelli","date":"2023-03-12","format":false,"excerpt":"Do We Need a Replacement for C? I found this old draft that cites Zig programming language... time to undraft it... :) C is a widely used language used to program anything from OS kernels to cryptography libraries. Is it time for a replacement? Erik EngheimNov 25, 2020\u00b75 min read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Senza categoria"","block_context":{"text":"Senza categoria","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/category\/senza-categoria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5473,"url":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2019\/04\/09\/most-popular-programming-languages-c-knocks-python-out-of-top-three-in-new-study-slashdot\/","url_meta":{"origin":10303,"position":2},"title":"Most Popular Programming Languages: C++ Knocks Python Out of Top Three in New Study – Slashdot","author":"Paolo Redaelli","date":"2019-04-09","format":"link","excerpt":"Is it time to give C++ a second canche or to revive mi interest for Eiffel? Source: Most Popular Programming Languages: C++ Knocks Python Out of Top Three in New Study - Slashdot C++ has knocked machine-learning favorite Python out of the top 3 in the TIOBE Index of popular\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mood"","block_context":{"text":"Mood","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/category\/mood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14846,"url":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2026\/01\/28\/flutter-a-necessary-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":10303,"position":3},"title":"Flutter? A necessary evil","author":"Paolo Redaelli","date":"2026-01-28","format":false,"excerpt":"Flutter SDK is available only for Linux x64. MacOS has ARM and x64 packages, Windows has x64. This make developing on Raspberry a real chore, not to speak *BSD. This makes me distrust the language as it seems a little to much under the whims of the GAFAM that controls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ethics"","block_context":{"text":"Ethics","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/category\/ethics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/flet-dev.webp?fit=752%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/flet-dev.webp?fit=752%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/flet-dev.webp?fit=752%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/flet-dev.webp?fit=752%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9943,"url":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2022\/12\/23\/why-modern-alternative-languages-never-replace-c-c\/","url_meta":{"origin":10303,"position":4},"title":"Why Modern Alternative Languages Never Replace C\/C++","author":"Paolo Redaelli","date":"2022-12-23","format":false,"excerpt":"I must correct Shalitha Suranga because while he correctly titled his article Why Modern Alternative Languages Never Replace C\/C++ Hundreds of C\/C++ alternatives will come, but C\/C++ will be with us forever! 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And it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eiffel"","block_context":{"text":"Eiffel","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/category\/eiffel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}