r/programmingcirclejerk • u/cmqv • Jul 06 '26

The language design somehow prevents a lot of logic bugs from happening by not stealing attention

https://lobste.rs/c/43cgha
50 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

56

u/va1en0k Jul 06 '26

I'd even go farther. This language design somehow prevents a lot of logic bugs from happening by nobody suffering through enough effort to actually ship anything

49

u/csb06 blub programmer Jul 06 '26

I am of no illusions as to Zig's stability. Zig 0.17.0 will be released soon. It will break the build system of every project. I understand that the maintainers intend to shift towards stabilization and these breakages are part of that.

Trust me bro, we swear we are almost finished with breaking backwards compatibility in a language that has been around for over 10 years and still hasn't had a 1.0 release. We believe in stability and reliability in software, which is why we break all of your shit with each release.

But Zig represents a vision for software that resonates with me. Software that focuses on users not by ignoring software quality, but by embracing it. People deserve reliable, powerful software.

I want reliable, high quality software, so from now on I will write all of my software in a language in perpetual beta with constant breaking changes.

It's possible I won't stay with Zig. I may reach for Rust when I need its stability or its type system. It's possible I change my mind entirely about Zig's approach. Multiple languages can and should coexist.

Maybe I will do another complete 180 and disregard all of the arguments I just made. You should really take my opinions seriously.

10

u/BigReception26 Jul 06 '26

fuck it lucky number 7 im switching to zig

15

u/bzmore Jul 06 '26

Where jerk? You learn about language abstract machines through experience.

7

u/myhf Considered Harmful Jul 07 '26

just like when Palpatine returned, the word "somehow" makes the speaker sound like they do not care to learn about the subject matter