Here, I just did a quick test with claude.
1. "make a simple tcp echo server that uses rust"
compiles and runs - took a few seconds to generate.
2. "make a simple tcp echo server that uses zig"
result: compile error, took literal minutes of spinning and thinking to generate
response: "ziglang.org isn't in the allowed domains. Let me check if there's another way, or just verify the code compiles conceptually and present it clean."
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/zig/0.15.2/lib/zig/std/Io/Writer.zig:1200:9: error: ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it @compileError("ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it"); ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. "make a simple tcp echo server that uses zig 0.16"
result: compile error:
zig build-exe main.zig main.zig:30:21: error: no field named 'io' in struct 'process.Init.Minimal' const io = init.io; ^~
4. "make a simple tcp echo server that uses zig 0.15"
result: compile error
zig build-exe main.zig /nix/store/as1zlvrrwwh69ii56xg6yd7f6xyjx8mv-zig-0.15.2/lib/std/Io/Writer.zig:1200:9: error: ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it @compileError("ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it");
Rust took seconds and just works. Zig examples took minutes and don't work out of the box. The DX & velocity isn't even close.
1. the language and stdlib are written by people who know what they're doing 2. packages in the ecosystem, at the barest level, are written by those who didn't leave after a few compile errors they couldn't reason about
I think the changes are improvements, but there's a real cost to language churn, and every time it happens, the graveyard of projects grows just that little bit larger.