Odin seems to strike a really interesting balance between simplicity and practic...

dismalaf · 2025-05-09T22:33:25 1746830005

I mean, the biggest difference is that Go has a GC and Odin doesn't. And each's ecosystem reflects that... In practice they're simply not used for the same types of software.

thegeekpirate · 2025-05-10T12:59:33 1746881973

I'd recommend going through https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview, as most of my points will be directly from there. Keep in mind it doesn't show _every_ feature (for instance, there are more built-in comptime procedures than shown https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#built-in-procedures-1), but does do a good job at displaying most.

Odin has all the features Go has (even struct tags https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#struct-field-tags), but adds:

- proper enums

- unions https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#unions

- built-in optional https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#maybet

- or_else/or_return/or_continue/or_break https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#or_else-expression (scroll down for the others)

- distinct types https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#distinct-types

- named arguments https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#named-arguments

- built-in matrix type https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#matrix-type

- built-in quaternions

- ternary operator, but you can use `bar := 1 if condition else 42` instead of ? and : if you'd like https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#ternary-operator

- default parameter values https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#default-values

- fantastic C integration

- forced in/exclusive range operators ..< and ..= https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#range-based-for-loop

- can get the zero value of any type using `{}` https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#zero-values

- defer if <condition> https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#defer-if

- explicit procedure overloading https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#explicit-procedure-over...

- bunch of vendored libraries https://pkg.odin-lang.org/vendor

- bit_set/bit_field https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#bit-sets https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#bit-fields

- proper slices (not the Go monster which combines a dynamic array along with slices) https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#slices

- `for x in xs` instead of `for _, x := range xs`, and `for &x in xs` if you want `x` to be addressable

- implicit selector expressions `.Member_Name` https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#implicit-selector-expre...

- parametric polymorphism with a ton of intrinsics https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#parametric-polymorphism

- - along with `where` clauses (similar to Rust) https://odin-lang.org/docs/overview/#where-clauses

Language cohesion has been _incredibly_ well thought out.

lucb1e · 2025-05-11T22:59:55 1747004395

Just to note: you're responding to a chat bot. Your comment is such a contrast to the level of effort that the parent poster put into theirs :(

drannex · 2025-05-13T15:28:01 1747150081

You're not kidding, I knew they were here, but the amount of effort on this is pretty subpar. cc: @dang

thegeekpirate · 2025-05-12T00:25:12 1747009512

All good, I contribute for everyone reading ^_^