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.
- 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. This mode should automatically provide test coverage.
- Memory zeroed by default, unless you initialize with "uninitialized".
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
./run_tests
- variable declarations and assignment expressions
- Multiple files
- Type checking
- inline assembly and syscalls
- running code at compile time
- print! macro that takes var args
- panic! macro that prints a stack trace to stderr in debug mode and calls abort() in release mode
- unreachable codegen to panic("unreachable") in debug mode, and nothing in release mode
- implement a simple game using SDL2
- How should the Widget use case be solved? In Genesis I'm using C++ and inheritance.
| zig | C equivalent | Description |
|---|---|---|
| bool | bool | unsigned 1-bit integer |
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 | intptr_t | signed pointer sized integer usize | uintptr_t | unsigned pointer sized integer
Root : many(TopLevelDecl) token(EOF)
TopLevelDecl : FnDef | ExternBlock | RootExportDecl | Use
Use : many(Directive) token(Use) token(String) token(Semicolon)
RootExportDecl : many(Directive) token(Export) token(Symbol) token(String) token(Semicolon)
ExternBlock : many(Directive) token(Extern) token(LBrace) many(FnDecl) token(RBrace)
FnProto : many(Directive) option(FnVisibleMod) token(Fn) token(Symbol) ParamDeclList option(token(Arrow) Type)
Directive : token(NumberSign) token(Symbol) token(LParen) token(String) token(RParen)
FnVisibleMod : token(Pub) | token(Export)
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 | token(Unreachable)
PointerType : token(Star) token(Const) Type | token(Star) token(Mut) Type
Block : token(LBrace) many(Statement) token(RBrace)
Statement : ExpressionStatement
ExpressionStatement : Expression token(Semicolon)
Expression : BoolOrExpression | ReturnExpression
BoolOrExpression : BoolAndExpression token(BoolOr) BoolAndExpression | BoolAndExpression
ReturnExpression : token(Return) option(Expression)
BoolAndExpression : ComparisonExpression token(BoolAnd) ComparisonExpression | ComparisonExpression
ComparisonExpression : BinaryOrExpression ComparisonOperator BinaryOrExpression | BinaryOrExpression
ComparisonOperator : token(BoolEq) | token(BoolNotEq) | token(BoolLessThan) | token(BoolGreaterThan) | token(BoolLessEqual) | token(BoolGreaterEqual)
BinaryOrExpression : BinaryXorExpression token(BinOr) BinaryXorExpression | BinaryXorExpression
BinaryXorExpression : BinaryAndExpression token(BinXor) BinaryAndExpression | BinaryAndExpression
BinaryAndExpression : BitShiftExpression token(BinAnd) BitShiftExpression | BitShiftExpression
BitShiftExpression : AdditionExpression BitShiftOperator AdditionExpression | AdditionExpression
BitShiftOperator : token(BitShiftLeft | token(BitShiftRight)
AdditionExpression : MultiplyExpression AdditionOperator MultiplyExpression | MultiplyExpression
AdditionOperator : token(Plus) | token(Minus)
MultiplyExpression : CastExpression MultiplyOperator CastExpression | CastExpression
MultiplyOperator : token(Star) | token(Slash) | token(Percent)
CastExpression : PrefixOpExpression token(as) Type | PrefixOpExpression
PrefixOpExpression : PrefixOp FnCallExpression | FnCallExpression
FnCallExpression : PrimaryExpression token(LParen) list(Expression, token(Comma)) token(RParen) | PrimaryExpression
PrefixOp : token(Not) | token(Dash) | token(Tilde)
PrimaryExpression : token(Number) | token(String) | token(Unreachable) | GroupedExpression | Block | token(Symbol)
GroupedExpression : token(LParen) Expression token(RParen)
x()
!x -x ~x
as
* / %
+ -
<< >>
&
^
|
== != < > <= >=
&&
||
=