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Zen-C: Write like a high-level language, run like C

214 points26 daysgithub.com
Joker_vD26 days ago

From what I can see in the codegen, defer is not implemented "properly": the deferred statements are only executed when the block exits normally; leaving the block via "return", "break", "continue" (including their labelled variants! those interact subtly with outer defers), or "goto" skips them entirely. Which, arguably, should not happen:

    var f = fopen("file.txt", "r");
    defer fclose(f);

    if fread(&ch, 1, 1, f) <= 0 { return -1; }
    return 0;
would not close file if it was empty. In fact, I am not sure how it works even for normal "return 0": it looks like the deferred statements are emitted after the "return", textually, so they only properly work in void-returning function and internal blocks.
ricardobeat26 days ago

Did you manage to compile this example?

Joker_vD25 days ago

Yes, actually:

    $ cat kekw.zc
    include <stdio.h>
    
    fn main() {
        var f = fopen("file.txt", "r");
        defer fclose(f);
    
        var ch: byte;
        if fread(&ch, 1, 1, f) <= 0 { return -1; }
        return 0;
    }
    $ ./zc --emit-c kekw.zc
    [zc] Compiling kekw.zc...
    $ tail -n 12 out.c
    int main()
    {
        {
        __auto_type f = fopen("file.txt", "r");
        uint8_t ch;
    if ((fread((&ch), 1, 1, f) <= 0))     {
        return (-1);
        }
        return 0;
    fclose(f);
        }
    }
kv85s16 days ago

[dead]

Lucasoato26 days ago

> Mutability

> By default, variables are mutable. You can enable Immutable by Default mode using a directive.

> //> immutable-by-default

> var x = 10; > // x = 20; // Error: x is immutable

> var mut y = 10; > y = 20; // OK

Wait, but this means that if I’m reading somebody’s code, I won’t know if variables are mutable or not unless I read the whole file looking for such directive. Imagine if someone even defined custom directives, that doesn’t make it readable.

andai26 days ago

Given an option that is configurable, why would the default setting be the one that increases probability of errors?

For some niches the answer is "because the convenience is worth it" (e.g. game jams). But I personally think the error prone option should be opt in for such cases.

Or to be blunt: correctness should not be opt-in. It should be opt-out.

I have considered such a flag for my future language, which I named #explode-randomly-at-runtime ;)

miroljub26 days ago

> Or to be blunt: correctness should not be opt-in. It should be opt-out.

One can perfectly fine write correct programs using mutable variables. It's not a security feature, it's a design decision.

That being said, I agree with you that the author should decide if Zen-C should be either mutable or immutable by default, with special syntax for the other case. As it is now, it's confusing when reading code.

psychoslave25 days ago

But why put it as a global metaswitcher instead of having different type infered from initial assignation qualifier?

Example:

    let integer answer be 42 — this is a constant
    set integer temperature be 37.2 — this is a mutable

Or with the more esoglyphomaniac fashion

    cst ↦ 123 // a constant is just a trivial map
    st ← 29.5 // initial assignment inferring float
Y_Y26 days ago

> I have considered such a flag for my future language, which I named #explode-randomly-at-runtime ;)

A classic strategy!

https://p-nand-q.com/programming/languages/java2k/

Dylan1680725 days ago

> Given an option that is configurable, why would the default setting be the one that increases probability of errors?

They're objecting to the "given", though. They didn't comment either way on what the default should be.

Why should it be configurable? Who benefits from that? If it's to make it so people don't have to type "var mut" then replace that with something shorter!

(Also neither one is more 'correct')

ralferoo25 days ago

Well, arguably if it's immutable, then it's not a variable so "var" doesn't make sense. The corollary is if it's a variable it should be mutable so "var mut" is a tautology.

I think "const x = something();" would be logical but they've used const already for compile-time constants. There's probably a sensible way of overloading that use though, depending if the expression would be constant at compile-time or not, but I've not considered it enough to think about edge cases (as it basically reduces to the halting problem unless any functions called are also explicitly marked up as compile time or not).

Dylan1680725 days ago

Trying to pick a good name for the keyword is valid but it's bikeshedding. Either way the keywords should be consistent and a config option is more trouble than it's worth.

And "variables" in math are almost always immutable within a single invocation. It's not a particularly bad word to use. But there's plenty of options. const/var. let/var. let/mut. var/mut I guess. let/set from a sibling comment.

netbioserror26 days ago

Yeah, immutability should probably use a `let` keyword and compiler analysis should enforce value semantics on those declarations.

phcreery25 days ago

Agreed, using `var` keyword for something that is non-var-ying (aka immutable) is not very intuitive.

ekipan25 days ago

Mutability is distinct from variability. In Javascript only because it's a pretty widely known syntax:

    const f = (x) => {
      const y = x + 1;
      return y + 1;
    }
y is an immutable variable. In f(3), y is 4, and in f(7), y is 8.

I've only glanced at this Zen-C thing but I presume it's the same story.

+4
Deanoumean25 days ago
Tracnac25 days ago

Yes, sadly, the one billion dollar mistake… I don’t know why the author took this path. it’s so confusing and immediately raised an issue: https://github.com/z-libs/Zen-C/issues/19 And of course, confusion: https://github.com/z-libs/Zen-C/pull/13#issuecomment-3739722... Life is already hard, but apparently not for developers, as I see

maxbond25 days ago

It's not ideal but it seems like something an LSP could tell you on a hover event. I didn't see an LSP (I didn't look that hard either) but presumably that's within the scope of their mission statement to deliver modern language ergonomics. (But I agree with sibling comments that this should be a keyword. Another decent alternative would be that it's only global in scope.)

gmueckl26 days ago

Other languages also have non-local qays of influencing compiler behavior, for example attributes in rust (standard) or compiler pragmas in C (non-standard).

When reading working code, it doesn't matter whether the language mode allows variable reassignment. It only matters when you want to change it. And even then, the compiler will yell at you when you do the wrong thing. Testing it out is probably much faster than searching the codebase for a directive. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

lerno25 days ago

It would be interesting to hear the motivation for it.

asyncze25 days ago

[dead]

seabrookmx26 days ago

It's odd that the async/await syntax _exclusively_ uses threads under the hood. I guess it makes for a straightforward implementation, but in every language I've seen the point of async/await is to use an event loop/cooperative multitasking.

throwaway17_1725 days ago

I’d say that the point of async/await is to create a syntax demarcation between functions which may suspend themselves (or be suspended by a supervisory system) and those functions that process through completely and cannot be suspended (particularly by a supervisory system). The means to enable the suspension of computation and allow other computations to proceed following that suspension are implementation details.

So, having an async function run on a separate thread from those functions that are synchronous seems a viable way to achieve the underlying goal of continuous processing in the face of computations that involve waiting for some resource to become available.

I will agree that inspired by C#’s originating and then JavaScripts popularization of the syntax, it is not a stretch to assume async/await is implemented with an event loop (since both languages use such for implementation).

sestep26 days ago

Noob question: if it just compiles to threads, is there any need for special syntax in the first place? My understanding was that no language support should be required for blocking on a thread.

maxbond25 days ago

One advantage is that it gives you the opportunity to move to a more sophisticated implementation later without breaking backwards compatibility (assuming the abstraction does not leak).

gmueckl26 days ago

Async/await should do a little more under the hood than what the typical OS threading APIs provide, for example forwarding function parameters and return values automatically instead of making the user write their own boilerplate structs for that.

giancarlostoro26 days ago

Syntax aside, how does this compare to Nim? Nim does similar, I think Crystal does as well? Not entirely sure about Crystal tbh. I guess Nim and Vala, since I believe both transpile to C, so you really get "like C" output from both.

archargelod25 days ago

From what I see, Zen-C aims to be "C with super-powers". It still uses C pointers for arrays and strings. It transpiles to single human-readable C file without symbol mangling. No safety. Not portable (yet?).

Nim is a full, independent modern language that uses C as one of its backends. It has its own runtime, optional GC, Unicode strings, bounds checking, and a huge stdlib. You write high-level Nim code and it spits out optimized C you usually don't touch.

Here’s a little comparison I put together from what I can find in the readme and code:

    Comparison          ZenC           Nim
    
    written in          C              Self-Hosted
    targets             C              C, C++, ObjC, JS, LLVM (via nlvm), Native (in-progress)
    platforms           POSIX          Linux, Windows, MacOS, POSIX, baremetal
    mm strategy         manual/RAII    ARC, ORC(ARC with cycle collector), multiple gc, manual
    generated code      human-readable optimized
    mangling            no             yes
    
    stdlib              bare           extensive/batteries-included
    
    compile-time code   yes            yes
    macros              comptime?      AST manipulation
    
    arrays              C arrays       type and size is retained at all times
    strings             C strings      have capacity and length, support Unicode
    bounds-checking     no             yes (optional)
jdc058926 days ago

man I haven't heard anything about Vala in ages. is it still actively developed/used? how is it?

spookie26 days ago

Yes, it is actively being developed.

Quite easy to make apps with it and GNOME Builder makes it really easy to package it for distribution (creates a proper flatpak environment, no need to make all the boilerplate). It's quite nice to work with, and make stuff happen. Gtk docs and awful deprecation culture (deprecate functions without any real alternative) are still a PITA though.

giancarlostoro25 days ago

There's a surprising number of GUI apps built using Vala, if you've used Linux long enough, there's a chance you may have used a Vala based GUI and not even known you were. It's just such a nice language, it's a shame it's not more prevalent since Gnome libraries can compile basically anywhere.

deaddodo25 days ago

Vala is still being developed and used in the GNOME ecosystem. Boo, on the other hand, is pretty dead.

jdc058916 days ago

I thought Boo was a .net/mono clr thing? whats the relationship

deaddodo16 days ago

Vala was inspired by Boo. And they were both “GNOME future languages” around the same timeframe.

bloovis26 days ago

Crystal compiles directly to object code, using LLVM. It does provide the ability to interoperate with C code; as an example, I use this feature to call ncursesw functions from Crystal.

lgunsch26 days ago

I was also going to mention this reminds me of Vala, which I haven't seen or heard from in 10+ years.

giancarlostoro25 days ago

Surprisingly theres a shocking number of GUI programs for Linux made with Vala, and ElementaryOS is built using Vala, and all their custom software uses Vala. So it's not dead, just a little known interesting language. :)

baranul24 days ago

Nim (Python-like) and Crystal (Ruby-like) are not C-like languages. Arguably, those languages are targeting a different audience. There are other C family and C style syntax languages that compile directly to C or has it as one of its backends.

Gys26 days ago

Initial commit was 24h ago, 363 stars, 20 forks already. Man, this goes fast.

saidnooneever26 days ago

man has been posting a lot before the initial commit about his library. following the guy on linkedin.

worldsavior26 days ago

Could be bots.

alexpadula26 days ago

It’s not, it’s just how hackernews works. You’ll see new projects hit 1k-10k stars in a matter of a day. You can have the best project, best article to you but if everyone else doesn’t think so it’ll always be at the bottom. Some luck involved too. Bots upvoting a post not organically I doubt is gonna live long on first page.

worldsavior26 days ago

The stars are on GitHub, they can come from somewhere else, e.g. the author himself buying stars.

Duendek8625 days ago

Hi, I'm the developer's father. Trust me, he hasn't bought a single star in his life—not even in Super Mario :p

alexpadula26 days ago

This is hella common. Companies have too much money to spend.

baranul21 days ago

But, star buying for GitHub is a thing too. This is why you have to look at things like number of contributors, forks, watchers, and pull requests. Just a lot of stars, without the other positive indicators, can be an indication that the project is not so engaging as it might seem or its supposed popularity is fake.

Panzerschrek25 days ago

That's not how it works. My publication with (subjectively) better language barely had a couple of comments and github stars.

directmusic26 days ago

Definitely could be, but the dev has been posting updates on Twitter for a while now. It could be just some amount of hype they have built.

morcus26 days ago

An interesting bit to me is that it compiles to (apparently) readable C, I'm not sure how one would use that to their advantage

I am not too familiar with C - is the idea that it's easier to incrementally have some parts of your codebase in this language, with other parts being in regular C?

saidnooneever26 days ago

one benefit is that a lot of tooling e.g. for verification etc. is built around C.

another is that it only has C runtime requirement, so no weird runtime stuff to impelement if youd say want to run on bare metal..you could output the C code and compile it to your target.

lerno25 days ago

C2 (http://c2lang.org) similarly compiles to C, but arguably more readable C code from what I can see. The benefits are (1) easy access to pretty much any platform with little extra work (2) significantly less long term work compared to integrating with LLVM or similar (3) if it's readable enough, it might be submitted as "C code" in working environments which mandate C.

zbendefy26 days ago

i think so. The biggest hurdle with new languages is that you are cut off from a 3rdparty library ecosystem. Being compatible with C 3rd party libraries is a big win.

actionfromafar26 days ago

Makes it easy to "try before you buy", too. If you decide it's not for you, you can "step out" and keep the generated C code and go from there.

forgotpwd1626 days ago

This isn't a very sane plan. The ~300 LOC example mini_grep (https://github.com/z-libs/Zen-C/blob/main/examples/tools/min...) compiles to a ~3.3k LOC monstrosity (https://pastebin.com/raw/6FBSpt1z). It's easier to rewrite the whole thing than going from the generated code.

At least for now, generated code shouldn't be considered something you're ever supposed to interact with.

actionfromafar25 days ago

I looked at it primed for the worst by your comment, but it’s honestly not so bad. A lot of setup, data type code and what looks like overloads.

morcus26 days ago

Very good point that I never considered! Thanks.

forgotpwd1626 days ago

Basically C2/C3 but Rust influenced. Missed chance to call it C4.

lerno25 days ago

I didn't see any similarities to C3, quite the opposite.

v_iter26 days ago

So, the point of this language is to be able to write code with high productivity, but with the benefit of compiling it to a low level language? Overall it seems like the language repeats what ZIG does, including the C ABI support, manual memory management with additional ergonomics, comptime feature. The biggest difference that comes to mind quickly is that the creator of Zen-C states that it can allow for the productivity of a high level language.

messe26 days ago

It has stringly typed macros. It's not comparable to Zig's comptime, even if it calls it comptime:

    fn main() {
        comptime {
            var N = 20;
            var fib: long[20];
            fib[0] = (long)0;
            fib[1] = (long)1;
            for var i=2; i<N; i+=1 {
                fib[i] = fib[i-1] + fib[i-2];
            }

            printf("// Generated Fibonacci Sequence\n");
            printf("var fibs: int[%d] = [", N);
            for var i=0; i<N; i+=1 {
                printf("%ld", fib[i]);
                if (i < N-1) printf(", ");
            }
            printf("];\n");
        }

        print "Compile-time generated Fibonacci sequence:\n";
        for i in 0..20 {
            print f"fib[{i}] = {fibs[i]}\n";
        }
    }
It just literally outputs characters, not even tokens like rust's macros, into the compiler's view of the current source file. It has no access to type information, as Zig's does, and can't really be used for any sort of reflection as far as I can tell.

The Zig equivalent of the above comptime block just be:

    const fibs = comptime blk: {
        var f: [20]u64 = undefined;
        f[0] = 0;
        f[1] = 1;
        for (2..f.len) |i| {
            f[i] = f[i-1] + f[i-2];
        }
        break :blk f; 
    };
Notice that there's no code generation step, the value is passed seamlessly from compile time to runtime code.
thomasmg26 days ago

I wonder, how can a programming language have the productivity of a high-level language ("write like a high-level language"), if it has manual memory management? This just doesn't add up in my view.

I'm writing my own programming language that tries "Write like a high-level language, run like C.", but it does not have manual memory management. It has reference counting with lightweight borrowing for performance sensitive parts: https://github.com/thomasmueller/bau-lang

jhgb25 days ago

C is literally a high level language.

throwaway17_1725 days ago

Seriously, in the discussion happening in this thread C is clearly not a high-level language in context.

I get your statement and even agree with it in certain contexts. But in a discussion where high-level languages are presumed (in context) to not have memory management, looping constructs are defined over a semantics inferred range of some given types, overloading of functions (maybe even operators), algebraic datatypes, and other functional language mixins: C most certainly IS NOT a high level language.

This is pedantic to the point of being derailing and in some ways seemed geared to end the discussion occurring by sticking a bar in the conversations spokes.

+1
saidnooneever25 days ago
afreire25 days ago

It has autofree and drop traits.

johnisgood26 days ago

Nim is a high-level language as well and compiles to C.

the__alchemist26 days ago

Odin and Jai are others.

baranul24 days ago

Vlang compiles to human readable C too, like Nim, not Odin and Jai. Here's a post to read on V's rational for doing so[1]. Incredibly, some vocal competitors mocked V's developers for its decision, then years later, have been quietly trying to copy or "steal" other ideals without giving credit (that they previously made fun of).

V's approach is to have various backends, in addition to native (to be focused on from 0.6); C, JavaScript, WASM, etc...

[1] https://github.com/vlang/v/discussions/7849

Voycawojka26 days ago

Does Odin compile to C? I thought it only uses LLVM as a backend

johnisgood25 days ago

No, Odin does not compile to C. It is a standalone programming language that compiles directly to machine code. It primarily uses LLVM as its backend for compiling to machine code, like you said.

+1
sestep26 days ago
zem26 days ago

chicken scheme compiles to c as well. it's a pretty convenient compilation target, you get to use all the compilers and tool chains out there and you don't add a dependency on llvm

+2
dieggsy26 days ago
kuon26 days ago

I am working on mine as well. I think it is very sane to have some activity in this field. I hope we will have high level easy to write code that is fully optimized with very little effort.

echelon26 days ago

There are going to be lots of languages competing with Rust and Zig. It's a popular, underserved market. They'll all have their unique angle.

pjmlp26 days ago

I has been served for several decades, however since the late-90's many decided reducing to only C and C++ was the way going forward, now the world is rediscovering it doesn't have to be like that.

forgotpwd1626 days ago

They're are certainly going to be lots of languages because now with LLMs it's easier (trivial?) to make one + library (case in point: just within last month there're have been posted here ~20 new langs with codebases 20k~100k LOC) but don't really see them competing. Rust and Zig brought actual improvements and are basically replacing usecases that C++/C had limiting the space available to others.

imtringued25 days ago

Uhm, no? There is barely enough space for Rust, which happens to have a unique feature/value proposition that raises it above the vast majority of its competitors. If you're fine with UB or memory unsafe code, then you go with C simply because its deeply entrenched.

In that sense Zen-C changed too many things at once for no good reason. If it was just C with defer, there would have been an opportunity to include defer in the next release of the C standard.

stevefolta25 days ago

Nice! Compiles in 2s on my unexceptional hardware. But it lacks my other main desiderata in a new language: string interpolation and kebab-case.

stevefolta25 days ago

Oh, it _does_ have string interpolation, my bad. Sadly, not by default -- you still have to go back and add an "f" before the string once you've started typing it and then realize that you want an interpolated string. Also, it doesn't always work -- if I define two interpolated string variables in one function, GCC chokes in a way I'm not understanding. And every interpolated string variable consumes 4K of global memory.

ramses026 days ago

The whole language examples seem pretty rational, and I'm especially pleased / shocked by the `loop / repeat 5` examples. I love the idea of having syntax support for "maximum number of iterations", eg:

    repeat 3 {
       try { curl(...) && break }
       except { continue }
    }
...obviously not trying to start any holy wars around exceptions (which don't seem supported) or exponential backoff (or whatever), but I guess I'm kindof shocked that I haven't seen any other languages support what seems like an obvious syntax feature.

I guess you could easily emulate it with `for x in range(3): ...break`, but `repeat 3: ...break` feels a bit more like that `print("-"*80)` feature but for loops.

zeknife26 days ago

Ruby has a similarly intuitive `3.times do ... end` syntax

ioasuncvinvaer26 days ago

go also has

    for range 5 { ... }
AIn0n25 days ago

Very similar to any other C-like languages compiling to C (like nim, V, and many smaller hobbyist ones), but I love the keyword "embed". It looks like unlimited potential for fast debbuging, and testing the code without writing boilerplate to read the file and so on.

saidnooneever25 days ago

i really like this project. fot me its the next level to your own custom C lib.

first your write 'tutorial C'. then after enough segfaults and double frees you start every project with a custom allocator because you've become obsessed with not having that again..., then you implement a library with a custom more generic one as you learn how to implement them, and add primitives you commonly build that lean on that allocator, it will have your refcouters, maybe ctors, dtors etc etc.. (this atleast is my learning path i guess? still have a loooong way to go as always!)

i dont see myself going for a language like this, but i think its inspirational to see where your code can evolve to with enough experience and care

mordv25 days ago

This illustrates Greenspun's tenth rule very well.

Kapendev25 days ago

> String Interpolation (F-strings)

This is so nice. It's crazy how other low-level langs don't have it. I know Dlang and Rust have it. Maybe Swift too? The way Dlang does it is nice because you can do a lot of stuff with them at compile time.

Archit3ch25 days ago

Answering the title, why not Julia?

ekjhgkejhgk25 days ago

Same. I've been using Julia for almost everything for a long time now, and it's an amazing language. Very understated.

Sieyk13 days ago

What has kept me from Julia is the abysmal start-up time (~3 sec from memory)

eigenspace13 days ago

Unless you were using hardware from the 00's, or had a lot of packages in your startup.jl or something, I suspect your memory may be exaggerating quite a bit.

That said, julia startup times definitely were a painpoint, but have improved quite a bit over the last few years.

keyle25 days ago

Impressive repos. I've been toying with the ideas myself but it's hard to stay on track with this sort of extremely demanding task. I am however not exporting to C but to low level jit.

A lot of the ideas in there are worth being inspired by.

Dwedit25 days ago

I wonder how this compares to the Beef programming language.

https://www.beeflang.org/

The Beef programming language was used to write Penny's Big Breakaway.

alfonsodev26 days ago

Is this the Typescript of C ?

taolson25 days ago

The author includes some easter-eggs (printing random facts about Zen and various C constructs) which trigger randomly -- check out the file src/zen/zen_facts.c in the repository...

t4eh025 days ago

This feels like a mix of "Cex.C" and "dasae-headers" projects I've seen somewhere before - maybe it's just the Rust and Zig trend.

p0w3n3d25 days ago

That's something I used to try to write, but failed due to complexity. A meta-preprocessor for C to make it a little bit more bearable...

KUDOS

kreco26 days ago

That's a very nice project.

List of remarks:

> var ints: int[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

> var zeros: [int; 5]; // Zero-initialized

The zero initialized array is not intuitive IMO.

> // Bitfields

If it's deterministically packed.

> Tagged unions

Same, is the memory layout deterministic (and optimized)?

> 2 | 3 => print("Two or Three")

Any reason not to use "2 || 3"?

> Traits

What if I want to remove or override the "trait Drawing for Circle" because the original implementation doesn't fit my constraints? As long as traits are not required to be in a totally different module than the struct I will likely never welcome them in a programming language.

jdmichal25 days ago

C uses `|` for bitwise OR and `||` for logical OR. I'm assuming this inherited the same operator paradigm since it compiles to C.

t4eh025 days ago

What about "Cex.C" and "dasae-headers"? they are integrated directly into the C ecosystem

Zambyte25 days ago

The tagline also applies to C :-)

blacksqr26 days ago

What's the performance hit?

alexpadula26 days ago

18 commits! I hope you keep up with the project, it’s really cool, great work.

rurban25 days ago

Constant hash seed? Never a good idea (std/core.zc)

aappleby25 days ago

Example at the top of the readme!

ethin26 days ago

Am I the only one who saw this syntax and immediately though "Man, this looks almost identical to Rust with a few slight variations"?

CupricTea26 days ago

It seems to just be Rust for people who are allergic to using Rust.

It looks like a fun project, but I'm not sure what this adds to the point where people would actually use it over C or just going to Rust.

nnevatie26 days ago

> what this adds

I guess the point is what is subtracts, instead - answer being the borrow-checker.

petcat26 days ago

> answer being the borrow-checker

There is an entire world in Rust where you never have to touch the borrow-checker or lifetimes at all. You can just clone or move everything, or put everything in an Arc (which is what most other languages are doing anyway). It's very easy to not fight the compiler if you don't want to.

Maybe the real fix for Rust (for people that don't want to care), is just a compiler mode where everything is Arc-by-default?

Ygg226 days ago

So it re-adds manual lifetime checking. Got it.

+1
askyng25 days ago
the__alchemist26 days ago

Maybe take the parts of rust the author likes, but still encourages pointers in high level operations?

suioir26 days ago

I thought the same and felt it looked really out of place to have I8 and F32 instead of i8 and f32 when so much else looks just like Rust. Especially when the rest of the types are all lower case.

unwind26 days ago

Agreed, that really stood out as a ... questionable design decision, and felt extremely un-ergonomic which seems to go against the stated goals of the language.

hyperhello26 days ago

Every language is apparently required to make one specific version of these totally arbitrary choices, like whether to call the keyword function, func, fun, fn, or def. Once they do, it’s a foolish inconsistency with everything else. What if the language supported every syntax?

turbotim26 days ago

My immediate thought was it looked a lot like Swift

bloodyforestcat15 days ago

The whole thing is vibe coded lmao

Panzerschrek25 days ago

Is it memory safe?

RockieYang25 days ago

nice to see it closure support.

sebastianconcpt25 days ago

But at that point why not Rust then?

Panzerschrek25 days ago

Yet another overly-hyped language with no practical benefits. Is it just another one better C?

GrowingSideways26 days ago

Why not compile to rust or assembly? C seems like an odd choice.

In fact why not simply write rust to begin with?

xnacly26 days ago

Assembly requires way more work than compiling to, say C. Clang and gcc do a lot of the heavy lifting regarding optimisation, spilling values to the stack, etc

GrowingSideways26 days ago

Then you're stuck with the C stack, though, and no way to collect garbage.

UncleEntity26 days ago

I have a couple interpreters I've been poking at and one uses 'musttail' while the other uses a trampoline to get around blowing up the C stack when dispatching the operators. As for the GC, the trampoline VM has a full-blown one (with bells-and-whistles like an arena for short lived intermediate results which get pushed/popped by the compiled instructions) while the other (a peg parser VM) just uses an arena as the 'evaluation' is short lived and the output is the only thing really needing tracking so uses reference counting to be (easily) compatible with the Python C-API. No worries about the C stack at all.

I mean, I could have used the C stack as the VM's stack but then you have to worry about blowing up the stack, not having access (without a bunch of hackery, looking at you scheme people) to the values on the stack for GC and whatnot and, I imagine, all the other things you have issues with but it's not needed at all, just make your own (or, you know, tail call) and pretend the C one doesn't exist.

And I've started on another VM which does the traditional stack thing but it's constrained (by the spec) to have a maximum stack depth so isn't too much trouble.

saidnooneever26 days ago

really? you cant track and count your pointers in C? why not?

ndr26 days ago

At times people think C is better. See recent discussion about https://sqlite.org/whyc.html

alexpadula26 days ago

C is best

dfox26 days ago

If I understand the history correctly then it started as a set of C preprocessor macros.

kuttel226 days ago

[flagged]

GrowingSideways26 days ago

> C is the patrician's choice.

Is this suppose to be a positive thing? I thought we all wanted to violently murder the patricians.

Regardless, C might be a valid IR. I apologize for being bigoted.

andai26 days ago

Try it again and see how it goes.