Draft:Zen C (programming language)
Submission declined on 30 June 2026 by Stuartyeates (talk).
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Comment: We need independent refs. Stuartyeates (talk) 07:30, 30 June 2026 (UTC)
| Zen C | |
|---|---|
| Paradigm | Multi-paradigm: Imperative, data-oriented, procedural |
| Family | C |
| Designed by | Zuhaitz Méndez Fernández de Aránguiz[1] |
| First appeared | January 2026 |
| Stable release | v0.4.4
/ March 21, 2026[2] |
| Typing discipline | Static, strong, inferred |
| OS | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD |
| License | MIT License |
| Filename extensions | .zc |
| Website | www |
| Influenced by | |
| C, Rust, Zig | |
Zen C is a modern general-purpose, statically typed, compiled systems programming that compiles to human-readable GNU C/C11 code.[3][4] It was created by Zuhaitz Méndez Fernández de Aránguiz, who is from Spain. Zen C has advanced features like type inference, pattern matching, generics, traits, and async/await (with 100% C ABI compatibility).[4][5] It emphasizes: systems programming, manual memory management with RAII-like mechanisms (e.g. defer and autofree), and metaprogramming capabilities.[5]
History
[edit]Zen C was created by the desire to have access to the C ecosystem, but with high-level language ergonomics and keeping C level raw performance. More expressive code can be written, that compiles to efficient human-readable C, allowing full integration with existing C tools and libraries. Modern features, without losing the desired control and compatibility that many developers want.[6][5][3]
Examples
[edit]Memory Management
[edit]Zen C uses manual memory management, combined with certain features to prevent leaks. There is no use of a garbage collector.[5][6]
autofreeautomatically frees a variable upon scope exit.deferis used for cleanup code, when the current scope exits.- Double-free errors are prevented by treating types with destructors as "Resources" and strictly following Move Semantics by default (on assignment).
- RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) is supported by implementing the
Droptrait.
let d = fopen("doc.txt", "r");
defer fclose(d);
Object-Oriented Programming
[edit]Zen C can create custom structures and methods.[5][6]
- Shared behavior and interfaces are defined using
trait - Methods are attached to structs (or types) using
impl - Zen C uses composition via
usekeyword, instead of traditional inheritance, which allows developers to mix in fields from other structs.
struct Point {
x: int;
y: int;
}
impl Point {
fn new(x: int, y: int) -> Self {
return Point{x: x, y: y};
}
fn dist(self) -> float {
return sqrt(.x * .x + .y * .y);
}
}
References
[edit]- ↑ "Creator of Zen C". GitHub.
- ↑ "Latest". GitHub. 21 March 2026.
- 1 2 "Zen-C: New Transpiler Blends Modern Simplicity with C's Performance Power". webpronews.com. 12 January 2026.
- 1 2 "Zen-C, looks like a mixer of Rust + Zig". ziggit.dev. 12 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Zen C – A Better C Programming Language". gamefromscratch.com. 22 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Zen C". GitHub.
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