My Experience with Zig: Pros, Cons, and the Future

TLDRIn this video, I share my experience with Zig, discussing its pros and cons, including tagged unions and error handling. I also highlight the areas where Zig could improve, such as tooling and package management. While Zig has its strengths, it remains unclear what space it will fill in the programming language landscape.

Key insights

⭐️Zig's tagged unions and error handling offer powerful features for developers.

🔍Zig's optional types provide a safer approach to handling null values.

🛠️Zig's compile-time macros simplify complex code generation tasks.

🔧The tooling and package management in Zig are areas that need improvement.

The purpose and future of Zig in the programming language landscape remain uncertain.

Q&A

What are tagged unions?

Tagged unions, similar to Rust enums, provide a type-safe way to represent multiple possible values in a single variable.

Why is error handling in Zig different?

Zig's error handling is unique as it treats errors as values, allowing developers to handle errors in a specific place rather than unpredictable control flow.

What are optional types in Zig?

Optional types in Zig help prevent null pointer errors by forcing developers to explicitly handle the possibility of null values.

Does Zig have a robust tooling ecosystem?

Zig's tooling and package management are currently under development, and there are limitations and challenges when including other libraries or code.

What is the future of Zig?

The future of Zig is uncertain, and it remains to be seen what role it will play in the programming language landscape, particularly outside of legacy systems.

Timestamped Summary

00:00Introduction and motivation for discussing Zig.

01:14Exploring the advantages of Zig, including tagged unions and error handling.

03:39Discussing the areas where Zig could improve, such as tooling and package management.

05:12Reflections on the future of Zig and its position in the programming language landscape.