C3 Language

C3 is a C-like language trying to be "an incremental improvement over C" rather than a whole new language. C3 owes a lot to the ideas of the C2 language: to iterate on top of C without trying to be a whole new language.

C3 tries to be an alternative in the the C/C++ niche: fast and close to the metal.

Design Principles

• Procedural "get things done"-type of language.
• Try to stay close to C - only change where truly needed.
• C ABI compatibility and excellent C integration.
• Learning C3 should be easy for a C programmer.
• Data is inert.
• Avoid "big ideas" & the "more is better" fallacy.
• Dare introducing some conveniences not "close to metal" if the value is great.

In what ways do C3 differ from C?

• No mandatory header files
• New semantic macro system
• Generic modules
• Module based
• Subarrays (slices) and vararrays built in
• Compile time reflection
• Enhanced compile time execution
• "Result" based zero overhead error handling
• Defer
• Value methods
• Associated enum data
• Built in strings
• No preprocessor
• Undefined behaviour trapped on debug by default
• Optional pre and post conditions

Current status

It's possible to try out the current C3 compiler in the browser: https://ide.judge0.com/?1EFo – this is courtesy of the developer of Judge0.

Design work is still being done in the design draft here: https://c3lang.github.io/c3docs/. If you have suggestions, send a mail to christoffer@aegik.com, file an issue or discuss C3 on the r/ProgrammingLanguages Discord server: https://discord.gg/cfu4wdk

What's currently missing

• asm sections.
• bitstructs
• array range initializers e.g. { [1..2] = 2 }
• assert - with compiler hint
• $switch $for - compile time iteration / switch
• Pre/post conditions
• generic - explicit overloading
• malloc / free
• string not fully implemented
• vararrays, e.g. int[*] not working
• unreachable for compiler hinting
• Generic modules
• Stdlib not linked.

Also see: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/issues

What's working?

• Lexing/parsing/semantic analysis/codegen.
• "Regular code" should mostly work.
• You can use any C function by declaring it as a normal C3 function with external

What can you help with?

• If you wish to contribute with ideas, please file issues on the c3docs: https://github.com/c3lang/c3docs instead of the compiler.
• Discuss the language on discord to help iron out syntax.
• Stdlib work will soon start, do you want to help out building the C3 std lib?
• Do you want do do real compiler work? Everyone is welcome to contribute.