The C3 Guide

What is C3?

C3 is an evolution of C and a minimalist systems programming language, featuring:

🦺 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.

⚡ 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

• 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

• Full C ABI compatibility.
• C3 can link C code, C can link C3 code.

📦 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

• Macros can be similar to normal functions.
• Or write code that understands the types in your code.