3.9 KiB
3.9 KiB
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.
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. This mode should automatically provide test coverage.
- Memory zeroed by default, unless you initialize with "uninitialized".
Roadmap
- Math expression
- Export .so library
- Multiple files
- 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.
Primitive Numeric Types:
| 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 |
Grammar
Root : RootExportDecl many(TopLevelDecl) token(EOF)
RootExportDecl : token(Export) token(Symbol) token(String) token(Semicolon)
TopLevelDecl : FnDef | ExternBlock
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)
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 | ReturnStatement
ExpressionStatement : Expression token(Semicolon)
ReturnStatement : token(Return) option(Expression) token(Semicolon)
Expression : token(Number) | token(String) | token(Unreachable) | FnCall
FnCall : token(Symbol) token(LParen) list(Expression, token(Comma)) token(RParen)
Directive : token(NumberSign) token(Symbol) token(LParen) token(String) token(RParen)
Building
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
./run_tests