Neovim considers switching to the zig build system & language for some core features

kj4tmp · October 8, 2024, 3:40pm

Please do not comment / add noise to their workflow! I think it’s an interesting read though!

github.com/neovim/neovim

Adventures in wonderland: build.zig

neovim:master ← bfredl:wonderland

opened 12:33PM - 15 Apr 24 UTC

bfredl

+1129 -29

currently, this works to run a simple lua environment in the host system: … zig build nlua0 -- hello.lua To generate source files zig build gen_sources to build a fixed configuration for x86-64 linux only: zig build -Dtarget=x86_64-linux-gnu nvim_bin # what is nlua0 ? `nlua` is just an abbreviation for nvim flavored lua, i e lua with the extended standard library functionality added by nvim such as json, mpack and libuv. `nlua0` is the _formal_ concept of the lua code we need to run before `nvim` can be built, in order to run lua scripts which process and generate more .c code, which still need a _subset_ of these extensions. It is not something which will be exposed to users (they will still use `nvim -l` to run such lua code).. # Will build.zig replace cmake? At this point, who knows. It's worth a try I think. # But isn't zig 0.x / pre-alpha / whatever ? Yes, that can still be a problem, for now. We will see which project (neovim or zig) will abandon zerover first (or ever).

Judsen · October 9, 2024, 3:39pm

I gotta get in contact with this bfredl guy. I bet I can use a lot of his work.

chrboesch · May 2, 2025, 3:52pm

Today it is merged into the master branch.