Zig

Imperative, compile-time metaprogramming. First appeared 2016; systems and ownership; systems, c toolchain replacement.

Record¶

First appeared	2016
Family	Systems and ownership
Paradigm emphasis	Imperative, compile-time metaprogramming
Typing	Static, strong
Memory	Manual, explicit allocators
Execution	AOT compiled (LLVM)
Primary domain	Systems, C toolchain replacement
Designers	Andrew Kelley
Reference	https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/
Last verified	not yet checked against its source by a human

Dates are first public release or publication, not the start of internal development. Colour on the typing and memory tags encodes kind, never rank.

Influence¶

Figure 1. Zig in the influence graph: recorded ancestors on the left, languages that record it as an influence on the right. Every node links to its own record. Edges name indexed languages only, so an empty side means no indexed relative, not none at all. Source: languages.json.

Within the Systems and ownership¶

Predictable performance without a tracing collector, achieved through ownership, borrowing, or reference counting checked at compile time.

Language	First appeared	Typing	Memory	Execution
Ada	1980	Static, strong	Manual, pooled	AOT compiled
Rust	2010	Static, strong, inferred	Ownership and borrowing	AOT compiled (LLVM)
Swift	2014	Static, strong, inferred	Automatic Reference Counting	AOT compiled (LLVM)
Hare	2022	Static, strong	Manual, no runtime collector	AOT compiled (QBE)
Mojo	2023	Static, strong; dynamic Python interop	Ownership and borrowing	AOT compiled (MLIR/LLVM)

5 other languages in this family, ordered by first appearance. Zig itself is omitted. Source: languages.json.