Carbon is an experimental programming language designed for connectiveness with C++. 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. The language is expected to have an experimental MVP version 0.1 in late 2026 at the earliest and a production-ready version 1.0 after 2028.
The language intends to fix several perceived shortcomings of C++ 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, whilst being influenced by C++, is not two-way compatible with C++ programs. Changes to the language will be decided by the Carbon leads.
Carbon's documents, design, implementation, and related tools are hosted on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license with LLVM Exceptions.
Example
The following shows how a program might be written in Carbon and C++:12
| Carbon | C++ |
|---|---|
| package Geometry;import Math;class Circle { var r: f32;}fn PrintTotalArea(circles: Slice(Circle)) { var area: f32 = 0; for (c: Circle in circles) { area += Math.Pi * c.r * c.r; } Print("Total area: {0}", area);}fn Main() -> i32 { // A dynamically sized array, like `std::vector`. var circles: Array(Circle) = ({.r = 1.0}, {.r = 2.0}); // Implicitly converts `Array` to `Slice`. PrintTotalArea(circles); return 0;} | import std;struct Circle { std::float32_t r;};void PrintTotalArea(std::span<Circle> circles) { std::float32_t area = 0; for (const Circle& c : circles) { area += std::numbers::pi * c.r * c.r; } std::print("Total area: {}\n", area);}int main() { std::vector<Circle> circles{{.r = 1.0}, {.r = 2.0}}; // Implicitly converts `vector` to `span`. PrintTotalArea(circles); return 0;} |
See also
- Computer programming portal
External links
References
"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. https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/trunk/README.md ↩
"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. https://cppnorth2022.sched.com/event/140f8/keynote-chandler-carruth-nulbscience-experiment-timenulb?linkback=grid ↩
"Carbon Language: An experimental successor to C++ - Chandler Carruth - CppNorth 2022". CppNorth. 22 July 2022 – via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omrY53kbVoA ↩
Bradshaw, Kyle (19 July 2022). "Carbon, a new programming language from Google, aims to be C++ successor". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2022/07/19/carbon-programming-language-google-cpp/ ↩
Carbon Language: Roadmap, carbon-language, 11 January 2024, retrieved 18 January 2024 https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/trunk/docs/project/roadmap.md ↩
"Difficulties improving C++". carbon-language/carbon-lang repo. Google. 21 July 2022 – via GitHub. https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/b62b7464a4f99f9101edbe3ea5b76d6cb2cdbc9b/docs/project/difficulties_improving_cpp.md ↩
Carruth, Chandler; Ross-Perkins, Jon; Riley, Matthew; Hummert, Sidney (23 July 2022). "Evolution and governance". carbon-language/carbon-lang repo. Google – via GitHub. https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/trunk/docs/project/evolution.md ↩
Illidge, Myles (21 July 2022). "Google's Carbon programming language aims to replace C++". MyBroadband. https://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/453410-googles-carbon-programming-language-aims-to-replace-c.html ↩
Jackson, Joab (20 July 2022). "Google Launches Carbon, an Experimental Replacement for C++". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/google-launches-carbon-an-experimental-replacement-for-c/ ↩
Mustafa, Onsa (20 July 2022). "Carbon, A New Programming Language from Google As A C++ Successor". PhoneWorld. https://www.phoneworld.com.pk/carbon-a-new-programming-language-from-google-as-a-c-successor/ ↩
"carbon-lang/LICENSE". GitHub. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2022. https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/31df852738aea520a1a1800259120bc10ce7a005/LICENSE ↩
"carbon-lang/docs/images/snippets.md at trunk · carbon-language/carbon-lang". GitHub. Retrieved 16 December 2023. https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang/blob/trunk/docs/images/snippets.md ↩