@joe its a really good point.

re "better C", I think my list, after using it pretty exclusively for the last 5 years after 10 years of C++ would be (assuming no need for drop in compat)

- modules
- no-capture lambdas (that compile down to function pointers)
- sum/product types w/ matching / destructuring syntax
- defer
- basic monomorphising generics with type class style constraints

I feel like I want to say something on metaprogramming, but im not sure how well bounded that can be

@maxh I contributed to and used Nim for a bit. After the main person behind it said some pretty toxic things I lost interest in supporting it. After that im a bit cautious on building stuff on smaller languages.

Other things like Rust are just pretty far from things I value in C like fast compile times, and the things its good at (memory safety) aren't very important for games IME

@maxh If you want to learn more C, outside of the usual practice advice, here are some useful articles on building a style of programming in it that's far less error prone

- https://nullprogram.com/blog/2023/10/08/

- https://ruby0x1.github.io/machinery_blog_archive/post/minimalist-container-library-in-c-part-1/index.html

- https://gustedt.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/modern-c-c23-edition-now-in-print/