# C3 programming language 44 Hacker News commenters recommended C3 programming language and 28 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it as a C-compatible evolution with ergonomic improvements, modules, and full C ABI interop. The most common caveat is that critics question its safety features and some syntax and naming choices. ## Why people recommend it - Fun to program in (6 comments): "I find it more fun to program in compared to plain C, and it's definitely more simple than reaching for C++." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480511)) "I stumbled upon the language earlier this year and love it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49387467)) "It's my favorite of the new round of languages by far." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939138)) - Ergonomic improvements over C (5 comments): "C3 lang gives you defer + a lot of significant ergonomic improvements right now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50062907)) "The improvement is you just write 'type?' for the return type to enable this and you don't need an out param" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46483705)) "C3 provides a module system for cleaner code organization across files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479595)) - Familiar evolution of C (4 comments): "C3 feels like home for C developers, there is a real market for language evolutions rather than revolutions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46481186)) "I think that makes a lot of sense and fits perfectly with their “evolution, not revolution” philosophy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46481760)) "I like the idea of strict improvements to C without taking anything away" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46481034)) - Full C ABI compatibility (3 comments): "C3 just has everything C compatible so not just calling into C but also C calling to C3 is just completely normal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48740173)) "The killer feature for me is the full ABI compatibility." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479292)) "the idea of ABI compatibility with C is pretty ingenious" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479593)) ## What people warn about - Confusing syntax and naming choices (5 comments): "I think the switch statement design is a foot gun: defaults to fall-through when empty and break when there is a body." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479540)) "But the array indices being reversed on declaration? I cannot think of an upside to that at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488850)) "It doesn't really add anything because 'void main()' already communicates it's a function." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46482150)) - Safety features may add undefined behaviour (3 comments): "sometimes instead of catching a mistake, these checks will instead silently introduce undefined behaviour into your program" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480143)) "However, just like for const the compiler might not detect whether the annotation is correct or not!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46482603)) "these can be misinterpreted as a safety feature, while they actually add more possibilities for UB" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487217)) - Missing tagged union and move support (2 comments): "sad to see that there is nothing special for matching or restructuring tagged unions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480348)) "leaving out move semantics and destructors is inexcusable at this point" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480441)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend - [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend - [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend - [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend - [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "C3 programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/c3-programming-language/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).