zig lang

An experiment in writing a low-level programming language with the intent to replace C. Zig intends to be a small language, yet powerful enough to write readable, safe, optimal, and concise code to solve any computing problem.

Design Principles

Never compromise power or performance.
Keep the language small and easy to understand. C programmers should pretty much be able to understand Zig source code without learning anything about Zig.
Interoperability with C is crucial. Using C libraries should not require "Zig bindings".

Goals

Ability to run arbitrary code at compile time and generate code.
Completely compatible with C libraries with no wrapper necessary.
Creating a C library should be a primary use case. Should be easy to export an auto-generated .h file.
Generics such as containers.
Do not depend on libc unless explicitly imported.
First class error code support.
Include documentation generator.
Eliminate the need for make, cmake, etc.
Friendly toward package maintainers.
Eliminate the need for C headers (when using zig internally).
Ability to declare dependencies as Git URLS with commit locking (can provide a tag or sha1).
Tagged union enum type.
Opinionated when it makes life easier.
- Tab character in source code is a compile error.
- Whitespace at the end of line is a compile error.
Resilient to parsing errors to make IDE integration work well.
Source code is UTF-8.
Shebang line OK so language can be used for "scripting" as well.
Ability to mark functions as test and automatically run them in test mode.
Memory zeroed by default, unless you initialize with "uninitialized".

Roadmap

Hello, world.
- Produce .o file.
Produce executable file instead of .o file.
Add debugging symbols.
Debug/Release mode.
C style comments.
Unit tests.
Simple .so library
How should the Widget use case be solved? In Genesis I'm using C++ and inheritance.

Primitive Numeric Types:

zig	C equivalent	Description
i8	int8_t	signed 8-bit integer
u8	uint8_t	unsigned 8-bit integer
i16	int16_t	signed 16-bit integer
u16	uint16_t	unsigned 16-bit integer
i32	int32_t	signed 32-bit integer
u32	uint32_t	unsigned 32-bit integer
i64	int64_t	signed 64-bit integer
u64	uint64_t	unsigned 64-bit integer
f32	float	32-bit IEE754 floating point
f64	double	64-bit IEE754 floating point
f128	long double	128-bit IEE754 floating point
isize	ssize_t	signed pointer sized integer
usize	size_t	unsigned pointer sized integer

Grammar

Root : many(TopLevelDecl) token(EOF)

TopLevelDecl : FnDef | ExternBlock

ExternBlock : token(Extern) token(LBrace) many(FnProtoDecl) token(RBrace)

FnProto : token(Fn) token(Symbol) ParamDeclList option(token(Arrow) Type)

FnDecl : FnProto token(Semicolon)

FnDef : FnProto Block

ParamDeclList : token(LParen) list(ParamDecl, token(Comma)) token(RParen)

ParamDecl : token(Symbol) token(Colon) Type

Type : token(Symbol) | PointerType

PointerType : token(Star) token(Const) Type  | token(Star) token(Mut) Type

Block : token(LBrace) many(Statement) token(RBrace)

Statement : ExpressionStatement  | ReturnStatement

ExpressionStatement : Expression token(Semicolon)

ReturnStatement : token(Return) Expression token(Semicolon)

Expression : token(Number) | token(String) | FnCall

FnCall : token(Symbol) token(LParen) list(Expression, token(Comma)) token(RParen)

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