3 ms·

Pass by value / pass by ref is quite a bit of mental overhead as it effectively affects your ABI/API. Zig tries to not force this so as long as you "pass by val

Pass by value / pass by ref is quite a bit of mental overhead as it effectively affects your ABI/API. Zig tries to not force this so as long as you "pass by value", the compiler can actually decide to pass it by reference. It does expose this kind of footgun though https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1330743975 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1330...

gnulinux 3y ago
Oof that's a very nasty bug. Is this still relevant in Zig or is there a workaround in the language? I'm not familiar with Zig, heard some good things about it, but this looks like a showstopper.
- slimsag 3y ago
  still relevant today, but as someone who writes a lot of Zig code I haven't ever really encountered it in the wild. You definitely could, though, and it'd be wildly confusing. Luckily, the Zig core team has recognized it is an issue and plan to address it before 1.0 :)
  - Cloudef 3y ago
    It's rare to hit it, but if you do, having it happen silently is not ideal for sure.
    - ForkMeOnTinder 3y ago
      I still think noalias-by-default is the way to fix this. https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/1108 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/1108 You get all the benefits of Zig being able to choose the function ABI, but if the optimization would have caused a bug, you'll get an immediate panic at the function entrypoint, instead of silently corrupted data.
- MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
  It’s a bit confusing when compared with other programming languages. But the Zig docs’ introduction to structs are pretty clear that they can be pass-by-value or pass-by-reference at the compiler’s discretion. If you need a copy, make a copy; if you need a reference, pass a pointer; if you don’t care, the compiler will pick one.
- avgcorrection 3y ago
  The issue is still Open.
cassepipe 3y ago
I think this is the same in the still experimental Carbon There is also a another paradigm where parameters are marked as in, out or inout parameters as in D (?) and cpp2 which makes the intent clear
- codethief 3y ago
  > I think this is the same in the still experimental Carbon Apparently, it's not (anymore?): https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1801236514 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1801...

gnulinux 3y ago

Oof that's a very nasty bug. Is this still relevant in Zig or is there a workaround in the language? I'm not familiar with Zig, heard some good things about it, but this looks like a showstopper.

slimsag 3y ago
still relevant today, but as someone who writes a lot of Zig code I haven't ever really encountered it in the wild. You definitely could, though, and it'd be wildly confusing. Luckily, the Zig core team has recognized it is an issue and plan to address it before 1.0 :)
- Cloudef 3y ago
  It's rare to hit it, but if you do, having it happen silently is not ideal for sure.
  - ForkMeOnTinder 3y ago
    I still think noalias-by-default is the way to fix this. https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/1108 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/1108 You get all the benefits of Zig being able to choose the function ABI, but if the optimization would have caused a bug, you'll get an immediate panic at the function entrypoint, instead of silently corrupted data.
MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
It’s a bit confusing when compared with other programming languages. But the Zig docs’ introduction to structs are pretty clear that they can be pass-by-value or pass-by-reference at the compiler’s discretion. If you need a copy, make a copy; if you need a reference, pass a pointer; if you don’t care, the compiler will pick one.
avgcorrection 3y ago
The issue is still Open.

cassepipe 3y ago

I think this is the same in the still experimental Carbon There is also a another paradigm where parameters are marked as in, out or inout parameters as in D (?) and cpp2 which makes the intent clear

codethief 3y ago
> I think this is the same in the still experimental Carbon Apparently, it's not (anymore?): https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1801236514 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5973#issuecomment-1801...