Let's talk about comptime in Zig. comptime is the feature that allow you to run code at compile time, and is maybe Zig's biggest differentiator from other languages in the same space. Combined with having types as values we get both type specializaton, generics, reflection, and even code generation.
Functional Programmers need to take a look at Zig.
I’ve been tinkering around with Zig to explore what’s possible with comptime. Whenever I evaluate a new language I use three axes:
We have Traits at Home | Mesoloop
I have had more time recently to write code in Zig[1], and it has been good for my soul. I wanted to share some insights I have arrived at regarding abstractions in Zig, including some techniques that I have found useful but not seen employed more broadly.
0.15.1 Release Notes ⚡ The Zig Programming Language
Zig is a general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.
Why Zig When There is Already C++, D, and Rust? ⚡ Zig Programming Language
If Zig code doesn’t look like it’s jumping away to call a function, then it isn’t. This means you can be sure that the following code calls only foo() and then bar(), and this is guaranteed without needing to know the types of anything:
0.9.0 Release Notes ⚡ The Zig Programming Language
Zig is a general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.
Interfaces, or: Runtime Polymorphism in Zig
Update: May 2023 - Killian Vounckx wrote an update to this (in February 2022) that covers some changes to Zig's idioms around how this stuff works. This page is just staying up for posterity.
Systems Programming with Zig
Zig delivers performance, reliability, and complex integration in systems programming in a simple, modern package. Zig hits the sweet spot for systems programming. This new programming language is high-performance, low-level, ultra-reliable, and perfectly suited for serious projects like writing libraries, daemons and shell utilities, and even operating systems and embedded code. Systems Programming with Zig shows you how to write quality, useful Zig applications without relying on libraries or frameworks-even if you’re new systems programming. In Systems Programming with Zig you’ll learn how to: Understand the Zig perspective on systems programming Write idiomatic Zig code Integrate Zig with C, systems libraries, and scripting languages Networking, interpreters, and graphics from the ground up Unlike UI-centric applications that form the public face of your software, systems programs like OS kernels, device drivers, and utilities interact directly with the hardware or operating system. In these low-level programs, performance and safety are paramount. Zig is a new programming language that builds on the legacy of C, C++, and even Rust to provide a high-productivity systems programming environment that does not rely on awkward libraries and frameworks.
Proposal for new builtin: @comptimeFileContents · Issue #6223 · ziglang/zig
Basically what it says on the tin - the function would read a file at compile time and return the contents as a comptime string. In my opinion, this builtin function would greatly extend and modula...
ZigCool
I can’t think of any other language in my 45 years long career that surprised more than Zig. I can easily say that Zig is not only a new programming language, but it’s a totally new way to write programs, in my opinion. To say it’s merely a language to replace C or C++, it’s a huge understatement.
Types and Programming Languages
A type system is a syntactic method for automatically checking the absence of certain erroneous behaviors by classifying program phrases according to the kinds of values they compute. The study of type systems--and of programming languages from a type-theoretic perspective -- -has important applications in software engineering, language design, high-performance compilers, and security. This text provides a comprehensive introduction both to type systems in computer science and to the basic theory of programming languages. The approach is pragmatic and operational; each new concept is motivated by programming examples and the more theoretical sections are driven by the needs of implementations. Each chapter is accompanied by numerous exercises and solutions, as well as a running implementation, available via the Web. Dependencies between chapters are explicitly identified, allowing readers to choose a variety of paths through the material. The core topics include the untyped lambda-calculus, simple type systems, type reconstruction, universal and existential polymorphism, subtyping, bounded quantification, recursive types, kinds, and type operators. Extended case studies develop a variety of approaches to modeling the features of object-oriented languages.
Theorems for free! | Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Functional programming languages and computer architecture
The polymorphic blame calculus integrates static typing, including universal types, with dynamic typing. The primary challenge with this integration is preserving parametricity: even dynamically-typed code should satisfy it once it has been cast to a ...
A theory of type polymorphism in programming
The aim of this work is largely a practical one. A widely employed style of programming, particularly in structure-processing languages which impose n…
Zig 2026: No-AI Policy, $670K Foundation, Left GitHub & Why Zig Isn’t 1.0 - Andrew Kelley Explains
Andrew Kelley: A Practical Guide to Applying Data Oriented Design (DoD)
Semantic Domain: On the Relationship Between Static Analysis and Type Theory
Some months ago, Ravi Mangal sent me an email with a very interesting question, which I reproduce in part below: The question that has be...