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epolanskiyesterday at 6:27 PM2 repliesview on HN

Sure, but considering that Zig is a modern C alternative, one should not and cannot afford to forget that C has been successful also because it stayed small and consistent for so long.

The entire C, C ABI and standard lib specs, combined, are probably less words than the Promise spec from ECMAScript 262.

A small language that stays consistent and predictable lets developers evolve it in best practices, patterns, design choices, tooling. C has achieved all that.

No evolving language has anywhere near that freedom.

I don't want an ever evolving Zig too for what is worth. And I like Zig.

I don't think any developer can resolve all of the design tensions a programming language has, you can't make it ergonomic on its own.

But a small, modern, stable C would still be welcome, besides Odin.


Replies

dnauticsyesterday at 7:14 PM

I'm pretty sure the point of aggressively evolving now is to have to basically not evolve it at some point in the future?

bbkaneyesterday at 7:26 PM

Besides Odin? Does Odin give you most of this?