After posting a link to The Month of Zig - Day Three to the fediverse I received a number of replies, one from Alexey that was little more than a code snippet:
Yesterday, I tried pasting this code into the file where I'm trying to write my first new Zig program. It didn't compile, so I asked a follow-up question and received another terse-but-helpful response:
Turns out that this link was the key to what I was looking for on day three: a current example of basic terminal I/O and an explanation of how it's supposed to be done in the current version of Zig.
Through all the searching on day three I never ran across this. An argument could be made that I probably should have read the release notes for the version of the language I was working with, but I didn't because I didn't expect to find what I was looking for there. It was only through a feedback loop that included communicating with others who are working with the language that I was able to write a program (that wasn't just compiling an example) that runs and does something that I want it to do.
This was a reminder about the importance of community. I don't really involve myself in the communities around the other languages I program in, at least not directly. I don't exactly know why; maybe its because I've learned most of these languages before I had access to such communities, or have learned them in the workplace from coworkers who are a kind of community but not the community for a given language. If I'm being completely honest, I've kind of been turned-off by programming language-centered communities because I've never identified with any specific language, and a lot of these communities involve identity in a way that I don't relate to.
But learning a new language from scratch, on my own and seeing how hard it can be to begin to do anything no matter how simple, I can see how people who have learned a programming language (especially if it's their first) through participation in the language's community can become attached to both in a way that I've never been attached to a programming language. It's probably not the language that they are attached to but the experience of community, and things that threaten that (like other programming languages) are something they might buck, consciously or unconsciously.
This was a revelation to me because it helps me understand and navigate situations where the solution to someone's software problem is "simply" a matter of using the wrong tool (programming language) for the job, but they refuse to consider a different tool, or provide irrational arguments against it. In these situations, maybe I'm not simply proposing the use of a different tool, but a disconnection from a community.
The lesson here for me is that whether I like it or not, the community that forms around a language matters.
That would explain a lot of the struggles I've had "helping" people in this area.
The other lesson for me here is to consider asking for help sooner and more directly. This time I received help out of pure luck, I didn't intend to ask for it and I have no idea how ... found my toot and decided to take the time to help me out. I am very grateful because this morning I have a working program because of their help. Maybe if I had learned this lesson sooner I could be a little further along by now, maybe even have finished my Zig port of Jet?
...but I guess it's only been five hours, so maybe I should relax.
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026