Carbon (programming language)

Carbon

Logo on Carbon's GitHub organization
Family	C
Designed by	Google
Typing discipline	Static, nominative, partly inferred
Implementation language	C++
License	Apache-2.0-with-LLVM-Exception
Filename extensions	.carbon
Website	github.com/carbon-language
Influenced by
C++, Rust, Swift [ citation needed ]

Carbon is an experimental programming language designed for interoperability with C++. ^[1] The project is open-source and was started at Google. Google engineer Chandler Carruth first introduced Carbon at the CppNorth conference in Toronto in July 2022. He stated that Carbon was created to be a C++ successor. ^{[2] [3] [4]} The language is expected to have an experimental MVP version 0.1 in 2025 and a production-ready version 1.0 after 2027. ^[5]

The language intends to fix several perceived shortcomings of C++ ^[6] but otherwise provides a similar feature set. The main goals of the language are readability and "bi-directional interoperability" (which allows the user to include C++ code in the Carbon file), as opposed to using a new language like Rust, that, while being influenced by C++, is not two-way compatible with C++ programs. Changes to the language will be decided by the Carbon leads. ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

Carbon's documents, design, implementation, and related tools are hosted on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license with LLVM Exceptions. ^[11]

Example

The following shows how a program might be written in Carbon and C++: ^[12]

Carbon

C++

packageGeometryapi;importMath;classCircle{varr:f32;}fnPrintTotalArea(circles:Slice(Circle)){vararea:f32=0;for(c:Circleincircles){area+=Math.Pi*c.r*c.r;}Print("Total area: {0}",area);}fnMain()->i32{// A dynamically sized array, like `std::vector`.varcircles:Array(Circle)=({.r=1.0},{.r=2.0});// Implicitly converts `Array` to `Slice`.PrintTotalArea(circles);return0;}

#include<numbers>#include<print>#include<span>#include<stdfloat>#include<vector>// or: import std;structCircle{std::float32_tr;};voidPrintTotalArea(std::span<Circle>circles){std::float32_tarea=0;for(constCircle&c:circles){area+=std::numbers::pi*c.r*c.r;}std::print("Total area: {}\n",area);}intmain(){std::vector<Circle>circles{{.r=1.0},{.r=2.0}};// Implicitly converts `vector` to `span`.PrintTotalArea(circles);return0;}

See also

• Computer programming portal

• Comparison of programming languages
• Timeline of programming languages
• C++
• D
• Go
• Rust
• Ring
• Mojo
• V

References

1. "README" . Retrieved 6 September 2023. It is designed around interoperability with C++ as well as large-scale adoption and migration for existing C++ codebases and developers.
2. "Scheduled events for Tuesday, July 19, 09:00 - 10:30". CppNorth, The Canadian C++ Conference, July 17–20, 2022. CppNorth. Retrieved 21 July 2022– via Sched.com.
3. "Carbon Language: An experimental successor to C++ - Chandler Carruth - CppNorth 2022". CppNorth. 22 July 2022 – via YouTube.
4. Bradshaw, Kyle (19 July 2022). "Carbon, a new programming language from Google, aims to be C++ successor". 9to5Google.
5. Carbon Language: Roadmap, carbon-language, 11 January 2024, retrieved 18 January 2024
6. "Difficulties improving C++". carbon-language/carbon-lang repo. Google. 21 July 2022 – via GitHub.
7. Carruth, Chandler; Ross-Perkins, Jon; Riley, Matthew; Hummert, Sidney (23 July 2022). "Evolution and governance". carbon-language/carbon-lang repo. Google – via GitHub.
8. Illidge, Myles (21 July 2022). "Google's Carbon programming language aims to replace C++". MyBroadband.
9. Jackson, Joab (20 July 2022). "Google Launches Carbon, an Experimental Replacement for C++". The New Stack.
10. Mustafa, Onsa (20 July 2022). "Carbon, A New Programming Language from Google As A C++ Successor". PhoneWorld.
11. "carbon-lang/LICENSE". GitHub. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
12. "carbon-lang/docs/images/snippets.md at trunk · carbon-language/carbon-lang". GitHub. Retrieved 16 December 2023.

External links

• Carbon-language on GitHub
• Carbon at the Compiler Explorer (godbolt)