4 ms·

My quick skim of Wikipedia may not be telling the complete story, but it says the initial release was 9 years ago (February 2016). After nearly a decade, I woul

My quick skim of Wikipedia may not be telling the complete story, but it says the initial release was 9 years ago (February 2016). After nearly a decade, I would hope that things would be out of "extreme beta mode," but I guess this isn't the case?

ksec 1y ago
For most of its time it is simply a single person and part time project. Even to this day the team is nowhere near Rust or Go's resources.
- LambdaComplex 1y ago
  Huh, I actually expected there to be a bigger team working on it. In that case: I'm really impressed.
- tialaramex 1y ago
  In 2016, nine years ago, Andrew announced he'd been working on the new language "Zig" for a couple of months. In 2018, seven years ago, Andrew announced he'd go full-time on Zig and quit his paying job to live off donations instead. In 2020, so five years ago, Zig's 501(c)3 the ZSF was announced, to create a formal structure to hire more people in addition to the few already on Zig. So, "most of its time" is just not true. For "most of its time" Zig was a small, largely independently funded project for multiple people, for a tiny period it was a part-time project, and for a while after that it was solo, but those weren't the majority of its existence.
  - throwawaymaths 1y ago
    yeah but i think you can count on one hand how many full time zig developers are paid by the foundation.
HumanOstrich 1y ago
What's the benchmark for how long something can be pre-1.0? Seems like a nonsense argument.
- yxhuvud 1y ago
  Something can be pre-1.0 as long as there are no stability guarantees.
- pharrington 1y ago
  There is no benchmark. As a species, we don't even know know what a good programming language is, let alone how to reliably develop one. This stuff takes time, and we're all learning it together. I like to compare this to real world cathedral building. There are some cathedrals that are literally taking centuries to build! It's OK if the important, but difficult thing takes a long time to build.
  - Dylan16807 1y ago
    Cathedrals are the opposite of extreme beta mode with lots of breaking changes.
    - pharrington 1y ago
      Yes. I guess what I meant is that cathedrals are a complex system that we know how to do, and still they take ages to build properly.
- Dylan16807 1y ago
  It's the combination of pre-1.0 and having rapid development speed that is being questioned here. And it's a good question, not nonsense. If you keep up the development pace you're going to approach stability. Unless you're in a manic spiral of rewrites.
- throwawaymaths 1y ago
  https://github.com/ziglang/zig/milestone/2 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/milestone/2
littlestymaar 1y ago
Same as Rust being almost a decade old when the first 1.0 was published. Making a programming language from scratch is a long endeavor when it's a one man project.

ksec 1y ago

For most of its time it is simply a single person and part time project. Even to this day the team is nowhere near Rust or Go's resources.

LambdaComplex 1y ago
Huh, I actually expected there to be a bigger team working on it. In that case: I'm really impressed.
tialaramex 1y ago
In 2016, nine years ago, Andrew announced he'd been working on the new language "Zig" for a couple of months. In 2018, seven years ago, Andrew announced he'd go full-time on Zig and quit his paying job to live off donations instead. In 2020, so five years ago, Zig's 501(c)3 the ZSF was announced, to create a formal structure to hire more people in addition to the few already on Zig. So, "most of its time" is just not true. For "most of its time" Zig was a small, largely independently funded project for multiple people, for a tiny period it was a part-time project, and for a while after that it was solo, but those weren't the majority of its existence.
- throwawaymaths 1y ago
  yeah but i think you can count on one hand how many full time zig developers are paid by the foundation.

HumanOstrich 1y ago

What's the benchmark for how long something can be pre-1.0? Seems like a nonsense argument.

yxhuvud 1y ago
Something can be pre-1.0 as long as there are no stability guarantees.
pharrington 1y ago
There is no benchmark. As a species, we don't even know know what a good programming language is, let alone how to reliably develop one. This stuff takes time, and we're all learning it together. I like to compare this to real world cathedral building. There are some cathedrals that are literally taking centuries to build! It's OK if the important, but difficult thing takes a long time to build.
- Dylan16807 1y ago
  Cathedrals are the opposite of extreme beta mode with lots of breaking changes.
  - pharrington 1y ago
    Yes. I guess what I meant is that cathedrals are a complex system that we know how to do, and still they take ages to build properly.
Dylan16807 1y ago
It's the combination of pre-1.0 and having rapid development speed that is being questioned here. And it's a good question, not nonsense. If you keep up the development pace you're going to approach stability. Unless you're in a manic spiral of rewrites.
throwawaymaths 1y ago
https://github.com/ziglang/zig/milestone/2 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/milestone/2

littlestymaar 1y ago

Same as Rust being almost a decade old when the first 1.0 was published. Making a programming language from scratch is a long endeavor when it's a one man project.