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Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

mitchellh.com

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Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#301

Post by trollbridge »

microtonal wrote: post #91
cyber_kinetist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really do not understand how people talk about "Being rich / being a billionaire will make you fundamentally unhappy". Damn if I had all the money I have so many good-willed projects I want to throw money at!

Damn if I had all the money I have so many good-willed projects I want to throw money at! I think this is quite defeatist thinking. A thousand people who donate $400 is also $400k and is well within the realm of most people here. A lot of non-profits also want the thousand people that donate $400, because $400 yearly from thousand people is much more robust long-term funding. Recently a well-known Dutch journalist, w…

We're working on a subscription model (well, membership - it's nonprofit) that is in the $3 - $5 range per month per member (or annually for $30 - $50). The main reason for this is simply so members will feel buy-in and will be willing to participate more and sit on advisory committees and so forth, although the extra cash can be useful, but it's not the primary focus.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#302

Post by trollbridge »

alper wrote: post #54
hiccuphippo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of Zig, You can see their financial reports here: https://ziglang.org/news/2025-financials/ Most of it goes to contributors.

Who are paid at a steady and relatively decent rate. That's cool.

$60 an hour is an absolute bargain for a developer who can operate at this level, particularly considering they aren't using AI tools.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#303

Post by RustSupremacist »

Donations to the Zig Software Foundation largely go to contributors to the language. Meanwhile, donations to the Rust Foundation largely go into pockets unknown.

The key difference is that the Rust Foundation is a 501(c)(6) and not a 501(c)(3). The Rust Foundation would do better for the community if they were a 501(c)(3) and more transparent about finances. Follow this example for the greater good.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#304

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

trollbridge wrote: post #293
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just bad government, not government. Public spending on things that require (a) maintainance (as almost all things do) (b) are massively less functional if the investment is not sustained (as many things are) is inherently going to lead to suboptimal results. It's equally bad if private entities do this, but for one reason or another, people seem to bitch about this less, because, well "freedom" etc. Public s…

It seems reasonable, though, to observe that some areas of government spending seem to largely get funnelled into contracts with the private sector where a great deal of money is spent, yet the actual problem is seemingly never fixed. An example of this is L.A.'s "homeless industry"; billions of dollars are spent, yet the problem gets worse and worse. Eventually, one considers that the purpose of the system is what i…

This is a bit tautological or something ... I acknowledged that there is waste, inefficiency and corruption in government.

The problem is when people identify government as the problem, rather than those 3 attributes.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#305

Post by andreareina »

ahepp wrote: post #216
armchairhacker wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To clarify, there are formal truths: widely-accepted hard science, e.g. “2 + 2 = 4”. Technically, there’s a point where we can’t fundamentally prove anything (“if a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?”), and rarely we get things wrong (e.g. classical physics)….but in practice, these are true, end of discussion. Then there are informal truths: e.g. “the Earth is round”, “the sky is blue”, “Gala apple…

> rarely we get things wrong (e.g. classical physics) Curious, do you think quantum physics is the end of the line? I wouldn't claim to have a good understanding of anything beyond classical physics, but I've just assumed it's turtles all the way down and at some point we'll find serious issues with the quantum model

The fundamental physics that underlie everyday life are known. We know that general relativity and the standard model of particle physics aren't fully compatible, but that's only at very short scales or very high gravity, those aren't relevant to everyday life. We're able to model single-particle and even few-particle systems on an astonishing degree of accuracy (1 part in 1e9, I believe down to measurement error). We can't model the 1e25 particles because in the brain to explain consciousness it's an exponential problem but in principle with unlimited time and memory we could turn the crank on the equations.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#306

Post by trollbridge »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #304
trollbridge wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems reasonable, though, to observe that some areas of government spending seem to largely get funnelled into contracts with the private sector where a great deal of money is spent, yet the actual problem is seemingly never fixed. An example of this is L.A.'s "homeless industry"; billions of dollars are spent, yet the problem gets worse and worse. Eventually, one considers that the purpose of the system is what i…

This is a bit tautological or something ... I acknowledged that there is waste, inefficiency and corruption in government. The problem is when people identify government as the problem, rather than those 3 attributes.

I think the private contractors getting government funding are more of the problem.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#307

Post by d4ng »

armchairhacker wrote: post #279
AlotOfReading wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not being pedantic. With different assumptions you can make a system where 2 + 2 = 0 and it turns out to be extremely useful. You can also build a system where 2 + 2 = 22 like the other commenter lampoons and the free monoid that corresponds to is again useful. If we had a radically different perspective (like Borges' Funes the memorious), you can imagine how adding wholly distinct objects might seem ridiculous…

But “2+2=4”, in the specific formal system that is common arithmetic, is true. Furthermore, you can translate “2+2=4” to any other formal system (your examples, “2+2=10 (base 4)”, “2+2=1 (mod 3)”, etc.), and it’s still true. “2+2=4” is a universal truth, just expressible in different ways.

What do you mean by universal truth in this context?

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#308

Post by lerno »

tadasv wrote: post #53

This is great IMO. I like zig as a language and the idea behind it. But boy, it has a syntax issue. I with they figure out better syntax before 1.0, developer ergonomics I think are as important.

Zig syntax has been mostly stable since 0.2, it is extremely unlikely it will change beyond tweaks. You have to go to Odin, C3 or (in the future) Jai for an alternative.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#309

Post by lerno »

$400k is serious money and will certainly help keeping the Zig team funded. I must gratulate Andrew and the team on their ability to create a product that is creating this kind of enthusiasm from its users.

One thing that’s sometimes overlooked though is that all donations are something that we’re grateful for, regardless of amount. If you have little to spend then even $1 a month is an investment that rivals $10000 by someone rich.

Also worth remembering is that the vast majority of language projects aren’t operating at Zig’s scale. For smaller projects such as C3, even modest recurring support can have a meaningful impact on long-term sustainability.

It doesn’t need to be $100000s a month to make a huge difference.

Re: Pledging another $400k to the Zig software foundation

#310

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

trollbridge wrote: post #306
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit tautological or something ... I acknowledged that there is waste, inefficiency and corruption in government. The problem is when people identify government as the problem, rather than those 3 attributes.

I think the private contractors getting government funding are more of the problem.

Only if that process involves waste, inefficiency or corruption. Which it might, or it might not.
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