carbon-language/carbon-lang
Carbon Lang
Carbon is an experimental, compiled systems programming language designed as a successor to C++. It focuses on providing a high-performance environment for modern software development while prioritizing memory safety and expressive generic programming. The language is built to support performance-critical engineering, allowing for precise control over memory layout and execution flow.
A primary differentiator of the project is its bidirectional interoperability with existing C++ codebases. This allows developers to call functions and share data between languages without manual wrappers, facilitating a gradual migration path for legacy systems. The language architecture is generic-first, utilizing checked generic constraints and interface requirements to ensure type safety and code reusability at compile time.
The language incorporates an incremental memory safety model that prevents common errors through initialization tracking, bounds checking, and the explicit isolation of unsafe code blocks. Its syntax is expression-oriented, treating control flow structures like loops and branches as values to maintain type consistency. The project also enforces a nominal type system and uses canonical source representation to ensure consistent interpretation across different build environments.