Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@andrewrk
Last active August 10, 2022 03:58
Show Gist options
  • Star 3 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 0 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save andrewrk/b09e2024177692fcc08e to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save andrewrk/b09e2024177692fcc08e to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
introducing the zig programming language https://github.com/andrewrk/zig
You appear to be advocating a new:
[ ] functional [x] imperative [ ] object-oriented [x] procedural [ ] stack-based
[ ] "multi-paradigm" [ ] lazy [ ] eager [x] statically-typed [ ] dynamically-typed
[ ] pure [x] impure [ ] non-hygienic [ ] visual [ ] beginner-friendly
[ ] non-programmer-friendly [ ] completely incomprehensible
programming language. Your language will not work. Here is why it will not work.
You appear to believe that:
[ ] Syntax is what makes programming difficult
[ ] Garbage collection is free [ ] Computers have infinite memory
[x] Nobody really needs:
[ ] concurrency [x] a REPL [ ] debugger support [ ] IDE support [ ] I/O
[ ] to interact with code not written in your language
[ ] The entire world speaks 7-bit ASCII
[ ] Scaling up to large software projects will be easy
[ ] Convincing programmers to adopt a new language will be easy
[ ] Convincing programmers to adopt a language-specific IDE will be easy
[ ] Programmers love writing lots of boilerplate
[x] Specifying behaviors as "undefined" means that programmers won't rely on them
[ ] "Spooky action at a distance" makes programming more fun
Unfortunately, your language has:
[x] comprehensible syntax [x] semicolons [ ] significant whitespace [ ] macros
[x] implicit type conversion [x] explicit casting [x] type inference
[ ] goto [ ] exceptions [ ] closures [x] tail recursion [x] coroutines
[x] reflection [ ] subtyping [ ] multiple inheritance [ ] operator overloading
[x] algebraic datatypes [x] recursive types [ ] polymorphic types
[ ] covariant array typing [ ] monads [x] dependent types
[x] infix operators [ ] nested comments [x] multi-line strings [ ] regexes
[x] call-by-value [ ] call-by-name [x] call-by-reference [ ] call-cc
The following philosophical objections apply:
[ ] Programmers should not need to understand category theory to write "Hello, World!"
[x] Programmers should not develop RSI from writing "Hello, World!"
[ ] The most significant program written in your language is its own compiler
[x] The most significant program written in your language isn't even its own compiler
[x] No language spec
[ ] "The implementation is the spec"
[ ] The implementation is closed-source [ ] covered by patents [ ] not owned by you
[ ] Your type system is unsound [ ] Your language cannot be unambiguously parsed
[ ] a proof of same is attached
[ ] invoking this proof crashes the compiler
[ ] The name of your language makes it impossible to find on Google
[ ] Interpreted languages will never be as fast as C
[ ] Compiled languages will never be "extensible"
[ ] Writing a compiler that understands English is AI-complete
[ ] Your language relies on an optimization which has never been shown possible
[ ] There are less than 100 programmers on Earth smart enough to use your language
[ ] ____________________________ takes exponential time
[ ] ____________________________ is known to be undecidable
Your implementation has the following flaws:
[ ] CPUs do not work that way
[ ] RAM does not work that way
[ ] VMs do not work that way
[ ] Compilers do not work that way
[ ] Compilers cannot work that way
[ ] Shift-reduce conflicts in parsing seem to be resolved using rand()
[ ] You require the compiler to be present at runtime
[x] You require the language runtime to be present at compile-time
[ ] Your compiler errors are completely inscrutable
[ ] Dangerous behavior is only a warning
[x] The compiler crashes if you look at it funny
[ ] The VM crashes if you look at it funny
[ ] You don't seem to understand basic optimization techniques
[ ] You don't seem to understand basic systems programming
[ ] You don't seem to understand pointers
[ ] You don't seem to understand functions
Additionally, your marketing has the following problems:
[ ] Unsupported claims of increased productivity
[ ] Unsupported claims of greater "ease of use"
[ ] Obviously rigged benchmarks
[ ] Graphics, simulation, or crypto benchmarks where your code just calls
handwritten assembly through your FFI
[ ] String-processing benchmarks where you just call PCRE
[ ] Matrix-math benchmarks where you just call BLAS
[ ] Noone really believes that your language is faster than:
[ ] assembly [x] C [ ] FORTRAN [ ] Java [ ] Ruby [ ] Prolog
[x] Rejection of orthodox programming-language theory without justification
[x] Rejection of orthodox systems programming without justification
[x] Rejection of orthodox algorithmic theory without justification
[ ] Rejection of basic computer science without justification
Taking the wider ecosystem into account, I would like to note that:
[x] Your complex sample code would be one line in: _____Python____________
[x] We already have an unsafe imperative language
[ ] We already have a safe imperative OO language
[ ] We already have a safe statically-typed eager functional language
[ ] You have reinvented Lisp but worse
[ ] You have reinvented Javascript but worse
[ ] You have reinvented Java but worse
[ ] You have reinvented C++ but worse
[ ] You have reinvented PHP but worse
[ ] You have reinvented PHP better, but that's still no justification
[ ] You have reinvented Brainfuck but non-ironically
In conclusion, this is what I think of you:
[ ] You have some interesting ideas, but this won't fly.
[ ] This is a bad language, and you should feel bad for inventing it.
[x] Programming in this language is an adequate punishment for inventing it.
@daurnimator
Copy link

(this is a reference to https://famicol.in/language_checklist.html )

@WaiYanMyintMo
Copy link

I want to confirm this. This is not serious, right?

@daurnimator
Copy link

@Stiles-X what do you mean? The form questions+answers are intended to be humorous; however the answers are correct for the Zig project.

@jensli
Copy link

jensli commented Mar 30, 2022

Interesting and fun! The form seems to constructed by a Lisp die-hard with the intention to reject all non-Lisp languages.

Edit:

I was wrong: The form seems to be constructed with the intention to reject ALL languages.

Anyway, the form is interesting as a succinct list of many important language constructs.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment