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carbon-language/carbon-lang

📈 Trending★ 33,703C++Audience · developerComplexity · 4/5ActiveSetup · hard

TLDR

Experimental programming language designed as a successor to C++, with seamless two-way interoperability so you can gradually migrate existing C++ codebases without a complete rewrite.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Carbon Language))
    What it does
      Successor to C++
      Gradual migration path
      Two-way interop
    Key features
      Modern safety
      C++ performance
      Gentle learning curve
    Tech stack
      C++ implementation
      LLVM backend
      Compiler toolchain
    Use cases
      Migrate large codebases
      Learn modern language design
      Contribute to language dev
    Current state
      Experimental stage
      Browser compiler explorer
      Not production-ready

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Gradually migrate a large C++ codebase to a modern language without rewriting everything at once.

USE CASE 2

Learn how a modern programming language is designed and implemented from the ground up.

USE CASE 3

Contribute to an open-source language project and help shape the future of systems programming.

Tech stack

C++LLVMCompiler infrastructure

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Requires building LLVM-based compiler from source with C++ toolchain; no pre-built binaries mentioned.

License could not be detected automatically. Check the repository's LICENSE file before use.

In plain English

Carbon Language is an experimental programming language being developed by Google as a potential successor to C++. The project addresses a well-known problem in software engineering: C++ is extremely powerful and fast but carries decades of accumulated complexity and difficult-to-fix design choices, while newer languages like Rust, Swift, or Go are much cleaner but require rewriting existing C++ codebases from scratch, an impractical option for projects with millions of lines of existing code. Carbon takes a different approach by prioritizing seamless two-way interoperability with C++: you can call Carbon code from C++ and vice versa, making it possible to migrate an existing codebase gradually, one file or library at a time, without a big-bang rewrite. The language aims to match C++ in performance (it compiles through LLVM, the same infrastructure used by clang), have a gentler learning curve for C++ developers, and introduce modern safety features incrementally. The relationship is analogous to how TypeScript extended JavaScript or Kotlin extended Java. The README is explicit that Carbon is not yet ready for use in production, it is still experimental and actively under development. You can try the current state in a browser-based compiler explorer. The project currently focuses on building the toolchain, which includes the compiler and related tools. Someone interested in this repo today would be a C++ developer, a programming language researcher, or an open-source contributor interested in following or contributing to a novel language design effort. The implementation is written in C++ and uses the LLVM compiler infrastructure as its backend.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up the Carbon compiler and write my first Carbon program that interoperates with existing C++ code?
Prompt 2
Show me an example of calling Carbon functions from C++ and C++ functions from Carbon in the same project.
Prompt 3
What are the key differences between Carbon and C++ syntax, and how does Carbon improve on C++'s design?
Prompt 4
How can I gradually migrate a C++ library to Carbon one module at a time using the two-way interoperability?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.