Rust, zig and carbon: Hype, hope or hell programming languages? – Desiree Santos and Michael Fait

The next generation of programming languages is always hype which we need to keep our eyes on. Our Technology Radar is an opinionated guide to technology frontiers in which to speed up and keep us updated. This talk aims to walk through exploring rust, zig and carbon programming languages ecosystem, limitations and the problem solves, and together understand the hype, hope and hell.

[maxoumimaro]

As a embedded C++ dev, I think Zig is the real deal. I like Rust but it is too much. I know people are not always crazy good at developping in industries and Zig makes programming easy whereas Rust is a pain to get fluent in. Other all, I think Zig gets the best of everything:
- One language for building and coding
- AMAZING compile times
- Unlike Rust, you are not forced into specific design patterns to please the compiler
- You could take a C, C++ dev and make them feel confortable using zig in a matter of days
- if you need to import C code in Zig, just include it and it's done, no fancy complicated things
- need to cross compile ? Zig buildsystem will pull the libc version/zig standard library/... you want and compile it for you

Overall it feels great and not plague by complex macros, preprocessor etc

[vildis.]

0:05 - Talk and speaker introductions
0:55 - Motivation for this talk
3:38 - Rust overview
6:33 - Rust performance
9:33 - Rust reliability
11:49 - Rust productivity
14:05 - Rust summary
14:53 - Zig overview
21:22 - Why zig?
26:46 - Zig, a simple language
30:08 - Compile time in zig
30:11 - Zig compiler & build system
33:47 - Zig summary
34:35 - Carbon overview
35:49 - A successor for C++
37:48 - Carbon summary
38:24 - Hype, hope and hell

[ian]

We need Zig to work. The only real alternative to be honest.

[stiglarty]

I've been spending the last 2 weeks playing around with zig. A bonus as a C++ dev by day is its ability to be used as C++ compiler and even build system.

[Onyx-itgk]

Rust is definitely not hype, already has very serious mainstream traction. Zig certainly has the potential, but not serious mainstream adoption (yet!). Zig is definitely not hype. Carbon, I like the idea of it, but it's in extremely slow development. I think it's going to miss its window of opportunity. So I wouldn't necessarily call Carbon hype, it will just be a Johnny-come-lately to the party and probably therefore not see widespread adoption, if and when it's even finished.

[CartoType]

The obvious language that wasn’t mentioned was Herb Sutter’s cppfront, which implements a new syntax for C++, giving 100% compatibility and much greater safety.

[wabilemotswasele]

Great presentation, thank you. Rust is cool. Zig is cooler. I started with Rust long before Zig, but of late I spend more time and effort learning Zig. Carbon i have hears about it, but it is unlikely i will consider it.

[deNudge]

Whenever I hear "no runtime" for Rust, I think "well..." 🙂 I mean there's a panic handling stack, a bounds checker, ... and probably a bunch of other things baked into the binary.

[anon-fzbo]

i hope i live to see zig win but im interested in try carbon coz ive alr tried rust

[thanatosor]

Rust for safe stuffs.
Zig for unsafe things that you can’t do in Rust.

[StaffyDoo]

Zig’s philosophy of being a programming language _and_ a toolchain reminds me a lot to Nix.

[dieyproductions]

Whoever has edited this video is not very bright. Why do I have to look at the back of the attendance heads when the lecturer is explaining an example on the board?

[alomac]

I recommend ignoring carbon until it's actually available

[pookiepats]

Guys please, if the man can't even speak English in a reasonable way - just publish an article or use a proxy - FFS, the point is to share information / raise awareness/engagement - if I were sitting in that room I would have checked out before the man said "BOON" (bun).

Nothing against him it just happens too much, f**k - just write an article next time.