{"slug": "aro", "name": "Aro", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 2.617, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-02-05", "latest": "2026-07-28", "why": "there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc)", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc)", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/vexu/arocc", "official_url": "https://github.com/Vexu/arocc", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Aro", "arocc"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 785400864, "item_id": 49087554, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49087554", "by": "dundarious", "date": "2026-07-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc)", "excerpt": "Not quite true, there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc), and a plan to transition to it for C compilation: https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c Using this native (written in Zig) C compiler to translate C source into Zig source as a part of the build, would presumably lend itself trivially to all the incremental logic in TFA, as updating C would update the generated Zig, and the increment", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zig's Incremental Compilation Internals"}, {"id": 765995617, "item_id": 47874726, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874726", "by": "spiffyk", "date": "2026-04-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which seems to be much more complete than TFA", "excerpt": "Zig actually bundles LLVM's Clang, which it uses to compile C with the `zig cc` command. But the long term goal seems to not be so tightly coupled to LLVM, so I'm expecting that to move elsewhere. They still do some clever stuff around compiler-rt, allowing it to be better at cross-compilation than raw Clang, but the bulk of it is mostly just Clang. There is also another C compiler written in Zig, Aro[1], which seems", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Writing a C Compiler, in Zig"}, {"id": 750471968, "item_id": 46904498, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904498", "by": "falloutx", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just forked https://github.com/Vexu/arocc and it took me 5 seconds to complete it.", "excerpt": "just forked https://github.com/Vexu/arocc and it took me 5 seconds to complete it.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "We tasked Opus 4.6 using agent teams to build a C Compiler"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["translate-c c translation", "c compilation within zig"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49085666", "title": "Zig's Incremental Compilation Internals", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47873694", "title": "Writing a C Compiler, in Zig", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46903616", "title": "We tasked Opus 4.6 using agent teams to build a C Compiler", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 785432608, "item_id": 49089538, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49089538", "by": "mlugg", "date": "2026-07-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "That's there for translate-c, it's not used for compiling C code", "excerpt": "That's there for translate-c, it's not used for compiling C code (To be clear, squeek502 is a part of the Zig core team [0], so he knows what he's talking about :D) [0]: https://ziglang.org/news/welcoming-new-team-members/", "context": "", "use_case": "translate-c C translation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zig's Incremental Compilation Internals"}, {"id": 785427008, "item_id": 49089188, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49089188", "by": "hibra1", "date": "2026-07-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Zig already uses arocc!", "excerpt": "Zig already uses arocc! https://codeberg.org/ziglang/zig/src/branch/master/lib/compiler", "context": "", "use_case": "C compilation within Zig", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zig's Incremental Compilation Internals"}, {"id": 785400864, "item_id": 49087554, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49087554", "by": "dundarious", "date": "2026-07-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc)", "excerpt": "Not quite true, there is already a capable C compiler written in Zig (Aro/arocc), and a plan to transition to it for C compilation: https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c Using this native (written in Zig) C compiler to translate C source into Zig source as a part of the build, would presumably lend itself trivially to all the incremental logic in TFA, as updating C would update the generated Zig, and the increment", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zig's Incremental Compilation Internals"}, {"id": 765995856, "item_id": 47874741, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874741", "by": "spiffyk", "date": "2026-04-23", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "which Zig started using since 0.16 for its TranslateC module.", "excerpt": "There is actually another C compiler written in Zig, Aro[1], which Zig started using since 0.16 for its TranslateC module. [1]: https://github.com/Vexu/arocc", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Writing a C Compiler, in Zig"}, {"id": 765995617, "item_id": 47874726, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874726", "by": "spiffyk", "date": "2026-04-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which seems to be much more complete than TFA", "excerpt": "Zig actually bundles LLVM's Clang, which it uses to compile C with the `zig cc` command. But the long term goal seems to not be so tightly coupled to LLVM, so I'm expecting that to move elsewhere. They still do some clever stuff around compiler-rt, allowing it to be better at cross-compilation than raw Clang, but the bulk of it is mostly just Clang. There is also another C compiler written in Zig, Aro[1], which seems", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Writing a C Compiler, in Zig"}, {"id": 750471968, "item_id": 46904498, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904498", "by": "falloutx", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just forked https://github.com/Vexu/arocc and it took me 5 seconds to complete it.", "excerpt": "just forked https://github.com/Vexu/arocc and it took me 5 seconds to complete it.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "We tasked Opus 4.6 using agent teams to build a C Compiler"}]}