Created in 2016 by Andrew Kelley, Zig is a programming language designed to be pragmatic, optimal, safe, and readable. At least, these are the goals set by its author.
As one of the newer programming languages, Zig is not yet in wide use, but Kelley's goal was for it to do what the programmer is trying to do better than any other language. In particular, Kelley hopes that his new language will compete favorably with the C family of languages while recognizing the reasons for the success of C.
Zig offers rapid runtime performance, and it avoids complicated syntax, offering a canonical way of accomplishing programming objectives.
Zig is a general-purpose language that highlights its size. As a small, simple language, programmers can focus on debugging applications rather than on learning complex syntax. Licensed under an MIT License, the language ships with a build system that does not require a configure script or makefile.
Zig's method of error handling is intended to make writing correct code easier than writing buggy code. Its debug mode optimizes for fast compilation time and crashes with a stack trace when undefined behavior would occur.
Its ReleaseFast mode produces heavily optimized code, performing the equivalent of link-time optimization automatically.
Zig code is compatible with C libraries without the need for a wrapper. A standard library is provided that competes with the C standard library and is always compiled against statically in source form. Zig binaries are not dependent on libc unless explicitly linked. Zig uses safe unions, tagged unions, and C ABI (application binary interface) compatible unions.
The binaries produced by Zig include complete debugging information, allowing programmers to use GDB, MSVC, or LLDB to debut software.
Cross-compiling is a primary use case. In addition to creating executables, creating a C library is a primary use case, and programmers can export an auto-generated .h file.
Zig may be installed on all forms of Linux distributions, including Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Elementary OS, Fedora, KDE Neon, Kubuntu, Manjaro, Linux Mint, OpenSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu.
The focus of this guide is on the Zig programming language, as well as any editors or tools designed to facilitate programming in Zig. User groups, forums, tutorials, and guides are also appropriate for this category.
Recommended Resources
The creator of the Zig programming language discusses a variety of topics on his page, mostly those related to the language, sorted by the date of posting, from April 2011 on. Projects that he is involved in are also noted, several of which are music or game-oriented, as well as Zig, for which he highlights the language's features, with links to project resources. Several games created by the author are included.
https://andrewkelley.me/
GitHub: Zig Programming Language
Available under an MIT License, Zig is a system programming language that prioritizes optimality, safety, and maintainability. The language and documentation files are available to be downloaded or cloned, and an introduction to the language, instructions on building Zig from its C++ source, its Zig source code, or by using a self-hosted compiler, are included. Contributors are identified, and development notes are posted.
https://github.com/ziglang
Snapcraft serves as an App Store for Linux users, including apps for the desktop, cloud, and the Internet of Things. One of the available apps is Zig, a general-purpose programming language available for free under an MIT License. Feature highlights are listed, and links to the official language website are provided. Detailed instructions for installing Zig on a Linux distribution are given, and a map shows the distribution of Zig users around the world.
https://snapcraft.io/zig
Zig is a general-purpose programming language designed for its robustness, optimality, and maintainability. An introduction to the language and its features is put forth, including its performance and safety, comparisons with C, manual memory management, error handling, generic data structures and functions, compile-time, integration with C libraries, and cross-compiling as a first-class use case. Support information, video and textual instructions, release notes, and applications.
https://ziglang.org/
