>Learning Zig is not just about adding a language to your resume. It is about fundamentally changing how you think about software.
Zig is just C with a marketing push. Most developers already know C.
replies(3):
Zig is just C with a marketing push. Most developers already know C.
I really don't need this kind of self-enlightenment rubbish.
What if I read the whole book and felt no change?
I think I understand SoA just fine.
Zig also encourages you to "think like a computer" (also an explicit goal stated by Andrew) even more than C does on modern machines, given things like real vectors instead of relying on auto vectorization, the lack of a standard global allocator, and the lack of implicit buffering on standard io functions.
I would definitely put Zig on the list of languages that made me think about programming differently.
const a = @Vector(4, i32){ 1, 2, 3, 4 };
const b = @Vector(4, i32){ 5, 6, 7, 8 };
const c = a + b;
vmovdqa xmm0, xmmword ptr [rip + .LCPI5_0]
vmovdqa xmmword ptr [rbp - 48], xmm0
vmovdqa xmm0, xmmword ptr [rip + .LCPI5_1]
vmovdqa xmmword ptr [rbp - 32], xmm0
vmovdqa xmm0, xmmword ptr [rip + .LCPI5_2]
vmovdqa xmmword ptr [rbp - 16], xmm0
Regarding the lack of a standard global allocator, and the lack of implicit buffering on standard io functions, these are simply features of the Zig standard library which are true of computers (computers do not have a standard global allocator nor do they implicitly buffer IO) but are not features of the C standard library, and therefore are not encouraged to use custom allocators or explicit buffering.