Do I interpret your comment correctly that you think Zig might follow a similar path?
I was generally rooting for mainstream usage of Rust, but I don't see it happening with the path it has taken. I also don't really hope it will for the same reasons.
As long as it's a good language, why do we care if it's mainstream or not?
Zig might be in a good position here as it has very nice C interop, which lets you leverage the past 30 years of programming history, but it's still got a ways to go before it will be "ready for primetime" from the look of it.
- There are extremely few jobs that recognise it. I'm attempting to learn C++ because of this.
- Documentation can be lacking as there isn't as much demand for it, or people with time to write it. That said, personal support in small communities can be great.
- Smaller library ecosystem.
- Survival of the language into the future is less certain without the financial support mainstream languages have.
I've used Haxe for years despite these points, it's a great language. A language is more than it's engineering though.
Ironically, neutralising network effects like that is perhaps the best way to make sure Zig becomes mainstream, eventually.
Not to lionize andy or anything, but I'm pretty sure that strategies to neutralize these concerns is a deliberate choice in his stewardship of the language.
One of the cooler aspects of Zig's breaking changes is that its formatting tool can automatically update your code to the new syntax.