this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
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[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

It feels like the article misses the whole point of zig. Zig doesn't exist because we forgot about c, or that it can solve problems that c can't solve. Zig exists because c comes with zero guardrails and zero guidance. Anything and everything is "an exercise left to the reader."

Which is fine, honestly. There is a time and place for those kinds of environments. There are many great projects written in c. But just because climbing a mountain can be difficult and fraught with potential disasters at every step, does it need to be?

Zig exists because c isn't a language or environment of the future. We need to be on the lookout for better and safer ways to do the things c does for us now. Rust is a similar project with similar goals to zig. And while I am 100% certain that neither are the language of the future we need, that language will do many of the things that zig and rust do for you.

So, sure. C is cool. It really is. But don't throw away something you don't understand because you have "c at home."