Getting started with ZIG programming Language

Zig is a low-level programming language written by Andrew Kelley that focuses on robustness, optimality, and reusability. Most notably the zig compiler is self-hosted. This implies that the zig compiler is written in zig.‌‌ Zig is a simple language designed without hidden control flow or hidden memory allocations. It also lacks macros and a preprocessor. This guarantees code runs as expected. In terms of speed, Zigs competes with C instead of depending on C.

Zig does not have a garbage collector. Memory allocation in zig is done manually. It is the developer's task to free memory and handle memory errors.

The simplest way to install ZIG

The simplest way to install zig is  on Linux is by using snap , on windows, you can install command line package managers such as chocolatey and scoop, on mac, you can install zig using homebrew to install ZIG.

How to Install ZIG on Linux using snap.

snap install zig --classic --edge

How to Install ZIG on Windows.

Option A: Using chocolatey.

choco install zig

Option B: Using Scoop.

scoop install zig

Installing ZIG on Mac OS using homebrew.

brew install zig

If the zig command is not working on your terminal you can locate the zig executable from bin or wherever it was placed during installation. If you installed ZIG using snap the zig executable is located in /snap/bin/zig and can be run directly in the terminal.

╭─alexander@Virtual-Machine ~/Dev/Zig
╰─$ /snap/bin/zig --help                                                                                                                                1 
Usage: zig [command] [options]

Commands:

  build            Build project from build.zig
  init-exe         Initialize a `zig build` application in the cwd
  init-lib         Initialize a `zig build` library in the cwd

  ast-check        Look for simple compile errors in any set of files
  build-exe        Create executable from source or object files
  build-lib        Create library from source or object files
  build-obj        Create object from source or object files
  fmt              Reformat Zig source into canonical form
  run              Create executable and run immediately
  test             Create and run a test build
  translate-c      Convert C code to Zig code

  ar               Use Zig as a drop-in archiver
  cc               Use Zig as a drop-in C compiler
  c++              Use Zig as a drop-in C++ compiler
  dlltool          Use Zig as a drop-in dlltool.exe
  lib              Use Zig as a drop-in lib.exe
  ranlib           Use Zig as a drop-in ranlib
  objcopy          Use Zig as a drop-in objcopy

  env              Print lib path, std path, cache directory, and version
  help             Print this help and exit
  libc             Display native libc paths file or validate one
  targets          List available compilation targets
  version          Print version number and exit
  zen              Print Zen of Zig and exit

General Options:

  -h, --help       Print command-specific usage

If the above guides don't get you set up with ZIG use the below link to install ZIG for your system.

Install Zig from a Package Manager · ziglang/zig Wiki

General-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software. - Install Zig from a Package Manager · ziglang/zig Wiki

GitHubziglang

A simple "hello world" in ZIG

Zig files should be saved with an extension of .zig .
A simple hello world in zig would look like below:

const std = @import("std");
const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();

pub fn main() !void {
    try stdout.writeAll("Hello World\n");
}

Some of the zig syntaxes are borrowed from modern commonly used programming languages. i.e. const to define a constant popularly used in JavaScript.

To simply run ZIG we use the zig run which usually creates an executable and runs it immediately.

/snap/bin/zig run hello.zig

A ZIG "hello world" can also be written as below using functions:

const std = @import("std");
const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();

fn hello() !void {
    try stdout.writeAll("Hello World\n");
}

pub fn main() !void {
    try hello();
}

Should you use ZIG in production

I would advise against using ZIG in full-scale production at the moment until the language is fully mature. Things are constantly changing and you might end up with unusable code that spits errors.

Conclusion

Zig advertises itself as a modern C. Its main goal is to compete with C. Zig also allows easy inclusion of C and C++ code in your codebase by shipping with C and C++ compilers. You can even run C and C++ code with ZIG.

Resources:

In-depth Overview ⚡Zig Programming Language