Zig and the design choices within
12 days ago
- #programming
- #memory-safety
- #zig
- Zig is not memory safe and does not attempt to be, which is a significant drawback in modern programming languages.
- Statistics show that memory safety issues account for up to 70% of security bugs, highlighting the importance of memory safety.
- Zig's approach to generics is unconventional and lacks standardization, leading to potential readability issues.
- Zig's comptime feature is powerful but overly complex, with limited practical benefits over simpler alternatives.
- Casting in Zig is cumbersome, especially for float to int conversions, which can also invoke undefined behavior.
- Result location semantics in Zig have counterintuitive behaviors, particularly with struct member swaps.
- The Zig compiler is slower than Clang, though a new backend shows promise for improved performance.
- Zig's build system is confusing and lacks sufficient documentation, despite its innovative use of the language itself.
- Zig lacks a first-class language server, which limits its usability and adoption.
- Zig's community can be unwelcoming, with a tendency to dismiss concerns without proper consideration.