Personal Comparison of Go, Rust, and Zig Programming Languages Based on Hands-On Experimentation
By
yurivish
Fresh out the oven, still warm. Top of the tray.
Summary
The article presents a personal exploration and comparison of three modern programming languages - Go, Rust, and Zig - based on the author's hands-on experimentation over several months. The author shares their journey of learning these languages outside of work to form opinions about their respective strengths and use cases. The comparison focuses on practical aspects like language design, tooling, ecosystem, and suitability for different types of projects, rather than theoretical superiority. The author provides specific insights about each language's philosophy, learning curve, and ideal application scenarios based on their personal experience.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledI realized recently that rather than using 'the right tool for the job' I've been using the tool at the job and that's mostly determined the programming languages I know.
My goal hasn't been proficiency; I'm more interested in forming an opinion on what each language is good for.
Programming languages differ along so many axes that it can be hard to compare them without defaulting to the obviously true but 1) entirely boring and 2) not-that-helpful advice of 'it depends'.
Each language has its own philosophy about what's important, and those philosophies shape everything from syntax to tooling to community norms.
The real value in learning multiple languages isn't just about adding tools to your toolbox—it's about understanding different ways of thinking about problems.
You might also wanna read
Dynamic Borrow-Checking in a Toy Programming Language: Implementing Rust-like Memory Safety Without Static Types
This article presents a demonstration of a toy programming language that implements borrow-checking without static type-checking. The langua
scattered-thoughts.net·1mo ago
C++26 Standard Draft Finalized with Reflection, Memory Safety, Contracts, and New Concurrency Framework
The C++26 standard draft has been completed, introducing major new features including reflection capabilities that allow C++ to describe its
infoq.com·1mo agoUnderstanding Fil-C: A Simplified Model of Memory-Safe C/C++ Implementation
The article presents a simplified model of Fil-C, a memory-safe implementation of C/C++. It explains that while the real Fil-C uses a compil
Sky: An Experimental Elm-Inspired Programming Language That Compiles to Go
Sky is an experimental programming language that combines Go's pragmatism with Elm's elegance to create a fullstack functional programming l
github.com·1mo ago
Analyzing Rust's Coherence and Orphan Rules: Ecosystem Development Challenges and Proposed Solutions
This article critiques Rust programming language's coherence rules and orphan rules, which prevent implementing traits for types defined in
boxyuwu.blog·2mo ago
SBCL Fibers: Implementation Design for Lightweight Cooperative Threads
This is a draft design document describing the implementation of lightweight userland cooperative threads (called 'fibers') for SBCL (Steel
atgreen.github.io·2mo ago