Choosing Zig Over C++ and Rust for Browser Development: A Simplicity-First Approach
By
ashvardanian
5mo ago· 11 min readenOpinion
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
Pulled from the oven just right. Trustworthy, fact-dense, deeply satisfying.
Score100TypeopinionSentimentpositive
Summary
The article explains why the author chose Zig programming language over C++ and Rust for building Lightpanda, a web browser project. The author admits to preferring simple languages like Zig, Go, and C due to personal limitations with complex abstractions at scale. While previously working with Go, the browser project required a low-level systems programming language for performance, leading to the choice of Zig as a modern, simple alternative to more complex languages like C++ and Rust.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledTo be honest, when I began working on Lightpanda, I chose Zig because I'm not smart enough to build a big project in C++ or Rust.
I like simple languages. I like Zig for the same reasons I like Go, C, and the KISS principle.
Not just because I believe in this philosophy, but because I'm not capable of handling complicated abstractions at scale.
Before Lightpanda, I was doing a lot of Go. But building a web browser from scratch requires a low-level systems programming language to ensure great performance, so Go wasn't an option.
We chose Zig over C++ and Rust because we wanted a simple, modern systems language. Here's what we learned building a browser with it.
