Re:Why is Zig so Cool?
by johnisgood on Saturday November 08, 2025 @03:40AM
(#45855165)
As much as I dislike Rust, I gotta give it credit where it's due. It has something unique: a borrow checker. What is so unique in Zig?
> It has something unique: a borrow checker.
Rust's borrow checker isn't unique either but was inspired by Cylone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_(programming_language)
IMHO a programming language doesn't need a single USP, it just needs to include good existing ideas and (more importantly) exclude bad existing ideas (of course what's actually a good and bad idea is highly subjective, that's why we need many programming languages, not few).
Rust's borrow checker is unique in the sense that it is production-ready. Cyclone is indeed prior art, but it's not as if it ever got beyond the research project stage.
Re:Why is Zig so Cool?
by johnisgood on Saturday November 08, 2025 @10:19AM
(#45857225)
I don't necessarily disagree, of course. That is why I like Odin the most so far, and perhaps C3.
But i would not put comptime as some sort of magical invention. Its still just a newish take on meta programming. We had that since forever. From my minimal time with Zig i kind of think comptime as a better version of c++ templates.
That said Zig is possibly a better alternative to c++, but not that exiting for me. I kind of dont get why so many think its the holy grail, first it was rust, and now zig.