# odinlang: Odin looks like a promising C replacement

I used to write a lot of C code. But after working with Go, C felt antiquated and error-prone. Odin is picking up steam so I wanted to try it and share my experience. The result? I like it.

Ordinarily I use Go everywhere I can. But there are cases where having a runtime and GC would be too annoying. One case would be compiling Go to WASM and running it in a browser. In a browser I don't want any background work (such as the GC) running unless absolutely necessary. (Though TinyGo's simple runtime does address this issue somewhat.)

What should I use in a limited environment? C? Managing separate header and source files? Error-prone pointer arithmetic? Ugh. It's 2025, surely we can do better!

# My requirements

I want something that gives me a similar feeling to Go. I want simple but convenient syntax, minimal reliance on symbols (I prefer words), very little magic, low potential for errors, and a fast compiler.

Sidenote: why not Rust? I do believe Rust is a strong language and critical stuff like kernels/browsers should be written in it. I tried it multiple times but I struggled to be effective in it. Furthermore, my software would require careful design to accommodate its restrictions. My use cases are not critical but rather experimental like writing a tool for myself or a small demo game. I often make large redesigns as I work on my project which I feel would be expensive in Rust. Also, I find the Rust compiler very slow for bigger projects, I can't iterate quickly with it. I'm looking for something where the language gets out of the way and lets me do whatever crazy thing I want.

A non-Rust, non-GC language means that my language won't be a memory-safe language. I'm willing to accept this tradeoff in exchange for simplicity if the language makes it easy to be careful. Having slices and defer would be a big help already. Those constructs make it much easier to write safe code compared to traditional C. Fortunately most modern languages have those so I just need to pick one. https://vfoley.xyz/hare/ lists some options.

# Likes

I learned about Odin (https://odin-lang.org/) after seeing it recommended multiple times on forums like Reddit and Hacker News. I was already itching to try a modern C replacement so I decided to try it because it looked really close to what I was looking for based on my requirements above. I started playing with it and grew fond of it. Here are the things I like:

• It has a batteries-included standard library. You can create windows, use OpenGL, use 4x4 matrices natively, compile to WASM, etc right away without importing external dependencies.
• Go-like syntax. I find that nicer because it's less visually noisy.
• It has a simple package management system instead of relying on headers. Every non-local function is "packagename.function_name". This makes it easy to see where the function is from in case I want to dig into it. There's no namespace1::structure2::enum3::Value4 type of noise.
• It also has a single-line if statement in the form of `if expr do continue`. So it uses `do` instead of `{}` for that case. I like single-line conditional code, see @/condjump.
• It compiles statically by default as things should be.
• It has less undefined behavior so the compiler can optimize less. E.g. signed overflow has defined behavior. That's fine by me, I don't work on stuff where every cycle counts. And such high-performance pieces can be easily left for C or assembly anyway.
• Arguments are immutable by default. This allows the compiler to optimize struct passing to C++'s equivalent of "const T& v" but without the verbose syntax. For mutable references you need to explicitly pass by pointer.
• It has built-in support for `context`. It is implicitly passed down as an extra function parameter. You can override the default allocator here. I like that it has first-class support for temp_allocator for making scratch allocations simpler. It has support for arenas too, see https://zylinski.se/posts/introduction-to-odin/#virtual-memory-arena-allocators-corememvirtual. It's not as generic as in Go though (not as inefficient either).

# Dislikes

There are certain things I miss or don't like though:

• I miss having methods on structures. They make the code more compact because you don't need to type out the function's package. They also allow having shorter method names. Instead of "shahash.sha256_hash(&hasher1, ...), shahash.sha512_hash(&hasher2, ...)" you could write "hasher1.hash(...), hasher2.hash(...)". They also help organize documentation: methods aren't scattered in a package but are grouped under the structure and thus easier to find without special tooling.
• Error handling is much harder due to the lack of standardized error type like in Go.
• Opinionated formatter: by default it breaks the line if it exceeds 100 characters. I like that gofmt respects my linebreaks and the lack of them. I hoped we were past the line length debates.
• Everything is exported by default. You need to explicitly annotate private symbols with `@private` or the whole file with `#+private`. I really like Go's use of uppercase/lowercase syntax for this. It's super compact.
• I miss having an automated import management tool like goimports. This wouldn't be too hard to implement given the language is pretty simple.
• I also miss a go doc-like documentation lookup tool in the terminal. Again, I think this wouldn't be too hard to implement either.
• I also miss the ability to import or run straight from GitHub like with Go. Makes it much longer to get started working from scratch.
• Odin is a hard-to-search name. There are just too many conflicts, even in the tech field. It's not as bad as Go though. Using odinlang as the search term helps.

# Tradeoff acceptance

While no language is perfect, Odin's drawbacks are tradeoffs I'm willing to make. For me, the simplicity and directness it offers far outweigh the features it lacks. It's easy to use and gets out of the way, letting me get results. It's definitely an improvement over C. If you are looking for a practical GC-free language, then I recommend giving Odin a try.

published on 2025-08-04

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