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C3

What Is C3?

C3 Programming Language

Section titled “C3 Programming Language”

C3 is an evolution of C and a minimalist systems programming language.

🦺 Ergonomics and Safety

Section titled “🦺 Ergonomics and Safety”
  • Optionals to safely and quickly handle errors and null.
  • Defer to clean up resources.
  • Slices and foreach for safe iteration.
  • Contracts in comments, to add constraints to your code.
  • Automatically free memory after use in @pool context.

⚡ Performance by default

Section titled “⚡ Performance by default”
  • Write SIMD vectors to program the hardware directly.
  • Access to different memory allocators to fine tune performance.
  • Zero overhead errors.
  • Fast compilation times.
  • LLVM backend for industrial strength optimisations.
  • Easy to use inline assembly.

🔋Batteries included standard library

Section titled “🔋Batteries included standard library”
  • Dynamic containers and strings.
  • Cross-platform abstractions for ease of use.
  • Access to the native platform when you need it.

🔧 Leverage existing C or C++ libraries

Section titled “🔧 Leverage existing C or C++ libraries”
  • Full C ABI compatibility.
  • C3 can link C code, C can link C3 code.

📦 Modules are simple

Section titled “📦 Modules are simple”
  • Modules namespace code.
  • Modules make encapsulation simple with explicit control.
  • Interfaces define shared behaviour to write robust libraries.
  • Generic modules make extending code easier.
  • Simple struct composition and reuse with struct subtyping.

🎓 Macros without a PhD

Section titled “🎓 Macros without a PhD”
  • Macros can be similar to normal functions.
  • Or write code that understands the types in your code.

⚠️ Warning: Docs may not reflect current language state. The C3 standard library and compiler are still evolving. Please verify examples against the compiler and standard library directly. If you spot mismatches, open a GitHub issue or help us fix them!