Comparing reflection capabilities of C++, Zig and C3
The article compares the compile-time reflection capabilities of C++, Zig, and the newer C3 language. It highlights that all three languages allow programs to inspect their own structure without incurring runtime costs. C3 is introduced as a minimalist alternative to C and C++ that uses specific syntax to distinguish compile-time execution.
- ▪Reflection enables a program to inspect and manipulate its own structure at runtime or compile time.
- ▪C3 is a new programming language designed for readability, performance, and C ABI compatibility without garbage collection.
- ▪C3 uses a dollar sign prefix to explicitly mark code that executes at compile time.
- ▪C3 implements macros that replace C preprocessor macros by adding compile-time evaluation and constant folding.
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| Original publisher | nyr24-blog |
| Canonical URL | https://nyr24.github.io/blog/reflection-comparison/ |
| Publication time | Sun, 20 Sep 2026 02:00:31 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-20T02:58:46.678Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-20T02:58:46.678Z |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Comparing reflection capabilities of C++, Zig and C3 nyr24 Sep 20, 2026 Comparing reflection capabilities of C++, Zig and C3 Reflection lets a program inspect and manipulate its own structure at runtime or compile time. All C++ (with its upcoming reflection support), Zig and C3 rely on compile-time reflection, so you can reason about types, enumerators, and struct members without any runtime cost. In this post I will compare how these languages approach compile-time reflection. What is C3? C3 is a relatively new programming language which mainly focuses on readability, performance, minimalism, and familiarity for C/C++ programmers. It doesn't have heavy runtime, garbage collection, exceptions or RAII. It also fully supports C ABI compatibility out of the box.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at nyr24-blog.
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