Seth Barrett

Daily Blog Post: September 1st, 2023

Zig

September 1st, 2023

Getting Started with Zig on MacOS

Welcome to the "Getting Started with Zig on MacOS" series! Over the next 30 posts, we will take you on a journey to explore the Zig programming language and its capabilities on the MacOS platform. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, Zig has a lot to offer, and this series will help you become proficient with it.

Table of Contents

To give you an overview of what to expect in this series, here's a table of contents for all 30 parts:

Part 1: Introduction

  • What is Zig?
  • Why Zig on MacOS?
  • Installation and Setup

Part 2: Your First Zig Program

  • Writing a "Hello, World!" program
  • Compiling and running Zig code

Part 3: Variables and Data Types

  • Declaring variables
  • Numeric and string data types
  • Type inference

Part 4: Control Flow

  • Conditional statements (if, else, switch)
  • Loops (for, while)

Part 5: Functions and Procedures

  • Declaring and using functions
  • Function arguments and return values
  • Procedures and error handling

Part 6: Data Structures

  • Arrays and slices
  • Structures (structs)
  • Enums and tagged unions

Part 7: Pointers and Memory Management

  • Working with pointers
  • Manual memory management
  • Safety and the Zig guarantee

Part 8: Error Handling

  • Zig's error sets
  • Error union types
  • Handling and propagating errors

Part 9: Modules and Packages

  • Organizing code into modules
  • Creating and using packages
  • Importing external libraries

Part 10: Unit Testing

  • Writing tests in Zig
  • Running and managing test suites
  • Test coverage and best practices

Part 11: Concurrency

  • Coroutines and async/await
  • Message-passing concurrency
  • Mutexes and atomics

Part 12: File I/O

  • Reading and writing files
  • Working with directories
  • Serialization and deserialization

Part 13: Interoperability

  • Using C libraries in Zig
  • Zig's C-compatible ABI
  • Calling Zig from other languages

Part 14: Command-Line Applications

  • Parsing command-line arguments
  • Creating interactive CLI tools
  • Handling input and output

Part 15: Networking

  • Socket programming with Zig
  • HTTP client and server examples
  • Websockets and networking best practices

Part 16: GUI Development

  • Introduction to GUI libraries in Zig
  • Building a simple GUI application

Part 17: Graphics and Multimedia

  • Working with images and graphics
  • Audio and video processing
  • Game development in Zig

Part 18: Web Development

  • Zig's role in web development
  • Server-side and client-side web applications
  • Web frameworks and tooling

Part 19: Debugging and Profiling

  • Debugging techniques in Zig
  • Profiling your code for performance optimization
  • Tips for troubleshooting

Part 20: Cross-Platform Development

  • Developing for multiple platforms with Zig
  • Compiling and targeting different OSes

Part 21-27: Advanced Topics

  • Advanced topics and techniques in Zig, including metaprogramming, low-level systems programming, and more.

In each post, we will dive deep into a specific topic, provide code examples, and offer practical insights. By the end of this series, you will have a strong foundation in Zig programming and be ready to create your own MacOS applications with confidence.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we'll guide you through setting up Zig on your MacOS system and writing your first "Hello, World!" program. Happy coding!