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Ouch, my first foray into Zig several months to a year ago also ended when my compilation of a copy-pasted version of the very first Hello, World code sample fa

by wycy 6y ago

Ouch, my first foray into Zig several months to a year ago also ended when my compilation of a copy-pasted version of the very first Hello, World code sample failed. (Copy-pasting of the second example did work, but still) Sad to see this hasn't changed in so long. Good documentation, especially for just starting out, is crucial for language uptake.

CyberDildonics 6y ago
Zig purposely does not parse carriage returns or tabs. When this is brought up, people tell you to use a separate program to format it before compiling and don't seem to acknowledge that this is not a problem with any other language. The result is that by default you get errors on windows with hello world programs. People will tell you to just change your defaults in your text editor to not write carriage returns. There seems to be a lot of rationalizations from a very unpragmatic choice.
- ikskuh 6y ago
  > When this is brought up, people [...] don't seem to acknowledge that this is not a problem with any other language. This was a deliberate design decision by andrew for all zig pre-1.0 to supress discussions about coding style (use CR, LF, CRLF, LFCR as a line ending? tabs vs. spaces? ...) as it's considered bike shedding Zig 1.0 won't have this restrictions anymore. More information can be found here: https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/FAQ#why-does-zig-force-me-to-use-spaces-instead-of-tabs https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/FAQ#why-does-zig-force-m... https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/544 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/544
  - CyberDildonics 6y ago
    Why not do that with a formatting tool that applies to the compiler source instead of purposely breaking hello world on windows?
    - yamirui 6y ago
      Same answer as to why you don't configure your text editor to just not emit useless and outdated CR from past century - he has better things to do. And no, really, check out Zig repo's issue tab, he really has better things to do with his time on a project that's still evolving. You're demanding 1.0+ usability from a language that's has yet to stand up on its own feet and is currently, unsurprisingly, 0.6.0 and won't be 1.0 any time soon because there's a massive amount of work that needs to be done. This also isn't C and it wasn't developed/maintained for past 50 years.
      - CyberDildonics 6y ago
        Ignoring two different ascii bytes is not "1.0+ usability". The idea that it is a matter of work is an insane rationalization. Someone else said it is to prevent 'bike shedding'. None of the backwards rationalizations people give actually makes sense, especially since it literally breaks any "hello world" program on windows. It's insane that people would try so hard to make excuses for such a basic disregard for new people. Think about the reverse. Let's say tabs are treated as spaces and carriage return bytes are ignored. Who would ever argue that something should be changed to break these things?
- deleted 6y ago
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by wycy 6y ago

CyberDildonics 6y ago

Zig purposely does not parse carriage returns or tabs. When this is brought up, people tell you to use a separate program to format it before compiling and don't seem to acknowledge that this is not a problem with any other language. The result is that by default you get errors on windows with hello world programs. People will tell you to just change your defaults in your text editor to not write carriage returns. There seems to be a lot of rationalizations from a very unpragmatic choice.

ikskuh 6y ago
> When this is brought up, people [...] don't seem to acknowledge that this is not a problem with any other language. This was a deliberate design decision by andrew for all zig pre-1.0 to supress discussions about coding style (use CR, LF, CRLF, LFCR as a line ending? tabs vs. spaces? ...) as it's considered bike shedding Zig 1.0 won't have this restrictions anymore. More information can be found here: https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/FAQ#why-does-zig-force-me-to-use-spaces-instead-of-tabs https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/FAQ#why-does-zig-force-m... https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/544 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/544
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  Why not do that with a formatting tool that applies to the compiler source instead of purposely breaking hello world on windows?
  - yamirui 6y ago
    Same answer as to why you don't configure your text editor to just not emit useless and outdated CR from past century - he has better things to do. And no, really, check out Zig repo's issue tab, he really has better things to do with his time on a project that's still evolving. You're demanding 1.0+ usability from a language that's has yet to stand up on its own feet and is currently, unsurprisingly, 0.6.0 and won't be 1.0 any time soon because there's a massive amount of work that needs to be done. This also isn't C and it wasn't developed/maintained for past 50 years.
    - CyberDildonics 6y ago
      Ignoring two different ascii bytes is not "1.0+ usability". The idea that it is a matter of work is an insane rationalization. Someone else said it is to prevent 'bike shedding'. None of the backwards rationalizations people give actually makes sense, especially since it literally breaks any "hello world" program on windows. It's insane that people would try so hard to make excuses for such a basic disregard for new people. Think about the reverse. Let's say tabs are treated as spaces and carriage return bytes are ignored. Who would ever argue that something should be changed to break these things?
deleted 6y ago
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