Hacker News with Generative AI: C

Julia: C codegen considered unnecessary: go directly to binary, do not pass C (arxiv.org)
Since time immemorial an old adage has always seemed to ring true: you cannot use a high-level productive programming language like Python or R for real-time control and embedded-systems programming, you must rewrite your program in C.
Programming Languages, Julia, C, Real-time Systems
4 points by hackandthink 1 day ago | 1 comments
F8 – an 8 bit architecture designed for C and memory efficiency [video] (fosdem.org)
Even in modern devices, 8-bit processors are found, but the architectures used are often not well-suited to programming in high-level languages, such as C. E.g. MCS-51 (8051, 8052) based microcontrollers in the Realtek WiFi chipsets. The f8 is an architecture based on the experience and lessons learned from maintaining Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) and the many 8-bit architectures it supports.
Hardware, Programming, C, Microcontrollers, 8-bit Architecture
62 points by mpweiher 3 days ago | 35 comments
Type safe variadic printf (stranger.systems)
While C can provide "convenient" string formatting by having hideously unsafe variadics, and dynamic languages, like python, can do the same, many type safe languages, such as Rust, are forced to provide such functionality through the use of a macro. Dependently typed languages, like Idris, can provide a printf like formatting interface, while maintaining both memory and type safety, without the need for macros. We will explore this by implementing a simplified version of printf in Idris from scratch.
Programming, Idris, Type Safety, Function Programming, C
20 points by todsacerdoti 6 days ago | 5 comments
Zig; what I think after months of using it (strongly-typed-thoughts.net)
Ah, Zig. I have a love-hate relationship with this one. A “new” (reading: appeared a couple years ago, already — yes, already), language with high ambitions. Zig was made to run at low-level, with a simple design to solve many problems C has (macros, allocators, error handling, more powerful types like baked-in tagged unions and bitsets, a better build system, no hidden control flow, etc.).
Programming Languages, Software Development, C, Zig
197 points by uaksom 16 days ago | 175 comments
No-Panic Rust: A Nice Technique for Systems Programming (reverberate.org)
Can Rust replace C? This is a question that has been on my mind for many years, as I created and now am tech lead for upb, a C library for Protocol Buffers. There is an understandable push to bring memory safety to all parts of the software stack, and this would suggest a port of upb to Rust.
Rust, Systems Programming, Programming Languages, C
204 points by chmaynard 17 days ago | 138 comments
I Wrote a WebAssembly VM in C (irreducible.io)
For the last 6 months, I’ve been spending my (limited) free time on evenings and weekends writing a WebAssembly VM in C.
WebAssembly, Programming, C, Virtual Machines
331 points by irreducible 17 days ago | 94 comments
C is not suited to SIMD (2019) (vmchale.com)
C (C++) is used to write performant software, however it is ill-suited to SIMD. In particular, its compilation of stepped reduction with lexical scoping opposes parallel execution.
C, Programming Languages, Performance, SIMD
89 points by zetalyrae 28 days ago | 120 comments
C stdlib isn't threadsafe and even safe Rust didn't save us (edgedb.com)
We’re in the process of porting a significant portion of the network I/O code in EdgeDB from Python to Rust, and we’ve been learning a lot of very interesting lessons in the process.
Programming Languages, Rust, C, Networking
327 points by msully4321 29 days ago | 362 comments
A Minimalist TypeScript for C (ycombinator.com)
A Minimalist TypeScript for C. Cp1, or C+1, or C plus 1 programming language adds only the bare essentials to C language that allows you to output C codes and able to use namespaces, modules, methods on enums/structs, auto variable deduction and more.
Programming Languages, C, TypeScript
44 points by GLC-ninja 31 days ago | 16 comments
I wrote a commercial game in C in 2025 (cowleyforniastudios.com)
For the last few years we’ve been working on a train management game, Iron Roads, which we released to Early Access today. Somewhat atypically for a game releasing in 2025, Iron Roads is written in pure C, not C++, pure C99. As a choice it has had its ups and downs, which I wanted to share in this post.
Game Development, Programming Languages, C, Indie Games
50 points by steeleduncan 31 days ago | 19 comments
An effect system proposal for C2y (open-std.org)
In this discussion proposal we suggest that C would be improved by extending the core type system into a type and effect system, that forces functions and blocks to declare which classes of effects will result from their evaluation.
Programming Languages, C, Type Systems
18 points by pjmlp 33 days ago | 6 comments
Agon Light C Development (ncot.uk)
How to write code for the Agon Light (and Console8) using C instead of BASIC, under Linux. It might work with WSL2 in Windows, and it might work on a Mac.
Programming, Linux, C, Agon Light
11 points by AlexeyBrin 33 days ago | 1 comments
Reading files the hard way – Part 1 (Node.js, C, rust, strace) (fasterthanli.me)
Everybody knows how to use files. You just open up File Explorer, the Finder, or a File Manager, and bam - it's chock-full of files. There's folders and files as far as the eye can see. It's a genuine filapalooza. I have never once heard someone complain there were not enough files on their computer.
Programming, Operating Systems, Node.js, C, Rust
4 points by airhangerf15 34 days ago | 0 comments
Understanding Memory Management, Part 1: C (educatedguesswork.org)
I've been writing a lot of Rust recently, and as anyone who has learned Rust can tell you, a huge part of the process of learning Rust is learning to work within its restrictive memory model, which forbids many operations that would be perfectly legal in either a systems programming language like C/C++ or a more dynamic language like Python or JavaScript. That got me thinking about what was really happening and what invariants Rust was trying to enforce.
Programming, Memory Management, C, Rust
236 points by ekr____ 38 days ago | 92 comments
Obvious things C should do (digitalmars.com)
Standard C undergoes regular improvements, now at C23. But there are baffling things that have not been fixed at all. The Dlang community embedded a C compiler in the D programming language compiler so it could compile C. This C compiler (aka ImportC) was built from scratch. It provided the opportunity to use modern compiler technology to fix those shortcomings. Why doesn’t Standard C fix them?
Programming Languages, C, Compiler Design
257 points by LorenDB 40 days ago | 300 comments
C: Simple Defer, Ready to Use (wordpress.com)
With this post I will concentrate on the here and now: how to use C’s future lifesaving defer feature with existing tools and compilers.
C, Programming, Defer Statement, Compiler Tools
175 points by ingve 45 days ago | 152 comments
Ask HN: Why do/don't you use C? (ycombinator.com)
I've been having a blast writing projects in C lately (emulator, raycaster) and using it extensively for a game engine I'm making.
Programming, C, Game Development
16 points by purple-leafy 46 days ago | 35 comments
Writing a simple pool allocator in C (8dcc.github.io)
I found out about pool allocators some time ago, and I really liked its simplicity and high performance, so I decided to write my own. This article was initially inspired by Dmitry Soshnikov’s article.
Programming, C, Memory Management
307 points by 8dcc 46 days ago | 143 comments
Boffins carve up C so code can be converted to Rust (theregister.com)
Computer scientists affiliated with France's Inria and Microsoft have devised a way to automatically turn a subset of C code into safe Rust code, in an effort to meet the growing demand for memory safety.
Programming Languages, Rust, C, Security
6 points by isaacfrond 48 days ago | 0 comments
Syzygy: Dual Code-Test C to Rust Translation Using LLMs and Dynamic Analysis (arxiv.org)
Despite extensive usage in high-performance, low-level systems programming applications, C is susceptible to vulnerabilities due to manual memory management and unsafe pointer operations.
Rust, C, Programming Languages, Software Security, AI
7 points by belter 52 days ago | 2 comments
Write a Shell in C (2015) (brennan.io)
It’s easy to view yourself as “not a real programmer.” There are programs out there that everyone uses, and it’s easy to put their developers on a pedestal. Although developing large software projects isn’t easy, many times the basic idea of that software is quite simple. Implementing it yourself is a fun way to show that you have what it takes to be a real programmer.
Programming, C, Tutorials
205 points by sebg 56 days ago | 16 comments
Train a Mnist VAE with C and CUDA (github.com/ggerganov)
Hi, I just want to share what I have been working on recently. This is an example of training a MNIST VAE. The goal is to use only ggml pipeline and its implementation of ADAM optimizer.
Machine Learning, Programming, C, CUDA, Generative AI
54 points by bssrdf 61 days ago | 2 comments
Compiling C to Safe Rust, Formalized (arxiv.org)
The popularity of the Rust language continues to explode; yet, many critical codebases remain authored in C, and cannot be realistically rewritten by hand. Automatically translating C to Rust is thus an appealing course of action.
Rust, C, Programming Languages, Software Development, Formal Verification
291 points by love2read 62 days ago | 157 comments
Fixing C Strings (thasso.xyz)
It’s well-known that null-terminated C strings are bug-prone and unsafe to use. They’re the stereotypical footgun. I’ve been tinkering in a bare-metal environment recently, writing all code myself, including the common types and routines you find in libc or similar. In all the code I wrote, there is not at single null-terminated string, and I have yet to encounter a bug related to bounds checking on strings or buffers.
Programming, C, Security
32 points by ushakov 65 days ago | 65 comments
Show HN: Non-backtracking, Unicode aware regular expression library in C89 (github.com/mnurzia)
Compact, non-backtracking, unicode aware regular expressions in C89
Software, Programming Languages, Regular Expressions, C, Unicode
7 points by mnurzia 67 days ago | 3 comments
Show HN: I built an embeddable Unicode library with MISRA C conformance (railgunlabs.com)
Embeddable Unicode® algorithms.
Software, Programming, C, Unicode, MISRA
117 points by hgs3 67 days ago | 48 comments
C has its limits. If you know where to look (subethasoftware.com)
Thank you, Bing Copilot (ChatGPT), for giving me another “thing I just learned” to blog about.
Programming, C, Limits, Blogging
16 points by jandeboevrie 73 days ago | 4 comments
Is this the weirdest thing in C? (wordpress.com)
There are many weird things in C. So many that it is one of the reasons why C can be a challenging language for novice programmers. But what is the weirdest? Well in my experience, the weirdest things in C all have to do with pointers, but the weirdest one may be x[i] == i[x].
Programming, C, Pointers
8 points by rbanffy 73 days ago | 6 comments
Show HN: A portable hash map in C (github.com/e-dant)
A small, portable, linear-probing hash map in C.
C, Data Structures, Hash Tables, Software, GitHub
176 points by e-dant 74 days ago | 90 comments
Ask HN: Best dev environment for C in 2024? (ycombinator.com)
Accepting suggestions about anything: IDEs, compilers, editors, editor extensions, etc.
Programming, C, Development Environments
8 points by labarilem 76 days ago | 14 comments