c3c

C3 is a C/C++ alternative for general purpose programming. Some links: https://c3-lang.org - main site https://github.com/c3lang/c3c - github repo https://learn-c3.org - tutorial https://c3-lang.org/standard-library/docs.html - standard library docs

> I'm very confused on why C3 or Odin rarely get any attention at all, despite being in the same C-replacement crowd Your observation is valid, and many would say because something smells very fishy with what HN is doing. Zig is pushed at extremely nonsensical levels on HN, despite there being very worthy and interesting language contenders in the category: C3[1], Odin[2], Vlang[3], Dlang[4], Zen C[5], etc... We rarely get to see news about these other languages, but instead are constantly saturated with and hit over the head with news about Zig (despite all kinds of issues and being beta). And as if people don't have interests in or don't want to see anything about other young or newer languages in the category. [1]: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c [2]: https://github.com/odin-lang/odin [3]: https://freedium-mirror.cfd/https://levelup.gitc

Way more suspicious star count looks to be from Zig[1]. That's based on their weird GitHub repo history[2]. In fact the initial negative campaigns initiated by the creators of Zig and Odin against V (and then turned on other languages like C3[4] and Zen C[5]), appeared to have been based on jealousy over supporter donations and GitHub stars. Zig, has among the weirdest GitHub star history of any language repo seen. Stalled or lower GitHub popularity, then sudden explosion in stars after the release of numerous AI ebooks on Amazon (mid to late 2024). The release of the mostly AI ebooks, were very oddly close together, as if by contract or bounty. Just a strange timeline. Even when Zig moved to Codeberg and their GitHub repo was "frozen", was getting hundreds of stars per month (despite over 3,000 open issues) for a long time, which made no

Perhaps it can be a relief to make assessments about a couple of newer C alternative languages[1][2]. Zen C appears to be moving up very quickly, and even has autofree. [1]: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c (C3) [2]: https://github.com/zenc-lang/zenc (Zen C)

c3 does this automatically, I implemented the same thing :) https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/pull/2854

Appears to be a tactic, to cause confusion with releases coming from other programming languages, because otherwise this doesn't make too much sense for an actual user to do. For example, V (Vlang) went to 0.5.0 (December 31st) and C3 is 0.7.8 (December 6th) in 2025 (last month). [1] https://github.com/vlang/v/releases/tag/0.5 [2] https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/releases/tag/v0.7.8

There is https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/issues/829

Still looking for a good design: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/issues/829

The GitHub project has more details: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c Some ways C3 differs from C: - No mandatory header files - New semantic macro system - Module-based namespacing - Slices - Operator overloading - Compile-time reflection - Enhanced compile-time execution - Generics via generic modules - "Result"-based zero-overhead error handling - Defer - Value methods - Associated enum data - No preprocessor - Less undefined behavior, with added runtime checks in "safe" mode - Limited operator overloading (to enable userland dynamic arrays) - Optional pre- and post-conditions

I see from `test/test_suite/compile_time_introspection/paramsof.c3t` that there is a way to get names & types of function parameters [1]. The language also seems to support default values { e.g. `int foo(int a, int b = 2) {...}` } and even call with keyword arguments/named parameters [2], but I couldn't find any `defaultof` or similar thing in the code. Does anyone know if this is just an oversight / temporary omission? [1] https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/blob/master/test/test_suite/co... [2] https://c3-lang.org/language-fundamentals/functions/

You can actually see the whole implementation of `@pool` inside the standard library (link: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/blob/f082cac762939d9b43f7f7301...) if you're interested. You'll have to follow a few function calls, but the whole implementation is defined within the standard library and thus easily modified for your needs. I believe that the memory inside the pool is indeed contiguous, and you can ask for a custom initial capacity. The default capacity depends on `env::MEMORY_ENV` at compile-time, but for normal use it's 256kB (256 * 1024, in bytes). About the explicit allocator passing, that's also a theme throughout the C3 standard library. Functions that need to allocate some memory will take in an `Allocator` as first argument. For those kind of functions there is always a `t<function>` variant which does not take in an allocat

I hope you do know there's a C3 language for a number of years already https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/

Oh `.elements` would you believe that this is a remnant of C2's builtin function `elemsof`? Its used so rarely (I think two uses in the entire stdlib), so it hasn't come up. I opened an issue for it: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/issues/2130 This is a good example of the sharp edges I hope to smoothen out in 0.7-0.9.

Well, you're free to revive this issue: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/issues/1451. I'd need a more solid proposal.