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the source code was very well laid put from what i remember, and tests were particularly helpful for understanding how to use library code. i just didn’t feel l

by jpe90 4y ago

the source code was very well laid put from what i remember, and tests were particularly helpful for understanding how to use library code. i just didn’t feel like i quite had the knowledge to architect low level code in general, you must have picked up on that naturally

eatonphil 4y ago
Of all the reasons I might imagine someone feeling like C is easier to pick up than Zig, "hardware-software knowledge to know how to architect low level code in general" does not make a ton of sense to me. In what way do you feel this was easier in C?
- kristoff_it 4y ago
  I think their point is that you need to learn that stuff and with C you can learn it "accidentally" through C learning materials. Zig doesn't have yet enough learning materials to "accidentally" teach you systems programming. The solution would be to have learning materials that teach you systems programming in a way that is not tied to a specific language, but I don't know of any example of that, and I guess the same applies to all the people that I had this discussion with in the past.
- jpe90 4y ago
  when i have an idea for a program i want to build, i struggle to express it in terms of structs, pointers, and C/zig’s language features. but with C, i can often find similar programs and find good examples of how to do what i want. for example right now i’m working on an SDL/opengl app with an immediate mode gui, and there’s enough code in the wild for me to pour over to understand how and why they structure their programs but when i started with zig i would often get stuck, unable to really understand the c code i was interfacing with and struggling with the language basics a bit
  - kristoff_it 4y ago
    Yeah, that makes sense. We'll try to improve the situation, we just need to get a bit further ahead with the language first.
  - smaddox 4y ago
    On knowing how to structure low level code, I highly recommend reading Casey Muratori's blog post on Semantic Compression: https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0015 https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0015 And, more generally, watching some of his (free) handmade hero video series: https://handmadehero.org/ https://handmadehero.org/
    - jpe90 4y ago
      Wow, that was incredibly helpful. I could read writeups of straightforward code all day. I also love how his ethos extends to the design of the website as well. Thanks so much for sharing.

by jpe90 4y ago

eatonphil 4y ago

Of all the reasons I might imagine someone feeling like C is easier to pick up than Zig, "hardware-software knowledge to know how to architect low level code in general" does not make a ton of sense to me. In what way do you feel this was easier in C?

kristoff_it 4y ago
I think their point is that you need to learn that stuff and with C you can learn it "accidentally" through C learning materials. Zig doesn't have yet enough learning materials to "accidentally" teach you systems programming. The solution would be to have learning materials that teach you systems programming in a way that is not tied to a specific language, but I don't know of any example of that, and I guess the same applies to all the people that I had this discussion with in the past.
jpe90 4y ago
when i have an idea for a program i want to build, i struggle to express it in terms of structs, pointers, and C/zig’s language features. but with C, i can often find similar programs and find good examples of how to do what i want. for example right now i’m working on an SDL/opengl app with an immediate mode gui, and there’s enough code in the wild for me to pour over to understand how and why they structure their programs but when i started with zig i would often get stuck, unable to really understand the c code i was interfacing with and struggling with the language basics a bit
- kristoff_it 4y ago
  Yeah, that makes sense. We'll try to improve the situation, we just need to get a bit further ahead with the language first.
- smaddox 4y ago
  On knowing how to structure low level code, I highly recommend reading Casey Muratori's blog post on Semantic Compression: https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0015 https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0015 And, more generally, watching some of his (free) handmade hero video series: https://handmadehero.org/ https://handmadehero.org/
  - jpe90 4y ago
    Wow, that was incredibly helpful. I could read writeups of straightforward code all day. I also love how his ethos extends to the design of the website as well. Thanks so much for sharing.