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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to C From Scratch – Learn safety-critical C with prove-first methodology

Seven modules teaching C the way safety-critical systems are actually built: MATH → STRUCT → CODE → TEST. Each module answers one question: Does it exist? (Pulse), Is it normal? (Baseline), Is it regular? (Timing), Is it trending? (Drift), Which sensor to trust? (Consensus), How to handle overflow? (Pressure), What do we do about it? (Mode). Every module is closed (no dependencies), total (handles all inputs), deterministic, and O(1). 83 tests passing. Built this after 30 years in UNIX systems. Wanted something that teaches the rigour behind certified systems without requiring a decade of…

C From Scratch is a seven-module C programming course designed for building safety-critical systems. Each module teaches a specific pattern—from detecting data existence to handling overflow and mode selection—using a… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1LC

    I made a simple virtual machine that runs C in the browser.This project is made as an experiment to see if C can be learned easier if the lower level is covered in paralel. Sandbox: https://vasyop.github.io/miniC-hosting Tutorial part 1: https://vasyop.github.io/miniC-hosting/?0 More info: https://github.com/vasyop/miniC-hosting/blob/master/README.md Please support this project: https://github.com/vasyop/miniC-hosting/blob/master/support.md

    2019 · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Programming language that compiles into a x86 ELF executable. - riicchhaarrd/ocean

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3GI

    Hi all! I'm going into my freshman year, and figured that the best way to prepare for the intro to programming Racket course would be to implement my own garbage-collected, dynamically typed, functional programming language in C ;) Anyways... here's the repo: https://github.com/liam-ilan/crumb I started learning C over the summer, so I still have a whole lot to learn... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! :D

    2023 · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    A multitasking monolithic Kernel based x86 targeting Operating System written in C# from scratch aiming for high-level implementation of drivers in managed environment. - amaneureka/AtomOS

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Get it from here: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c In 2019, while contributing to the C2 language, I started up "C3" as a pet project while waiting for pull requests to be approved... Now it's 6 years later and C3 well on its way to 1.0, having released 0.7.0 last week. Unlike other C alternatives, C3 tries to evolve C – but without concern to backwards compatibility to the latter. What it adds to C is among other things: - Module system - Semantic macros and compile time introspection - Lightweight generic modules - Zero overhead errors - Build-in slices and SIMD types -…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    A modular web framework for C, inspired by kernel modules. Dynamically upload and compile C code at runtime to build REST APIs, WebSocket services, and more. Includes support for JSON (Jansson), SQLite, OpenSSL, and streaming large data efficiently. - joexbayer/c-web-modules

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    a lightweight web framework in c. Contribute to ashtonjamesd/lavandula development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Learn the foundations to be a full stack software engineer. 100% free.

    2020 · c0d3.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9CA

    Compiler link: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c Docs: http://www.c3-lang.org This is my follow-up "Show HN" from roughly a year ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570). Since then the language design has evolved and the compiler has gotten much more solid. Assorted extra info: - The C3 name is a homage to the C2 language project (http://c2lang.org) which it was originally inspired by. - Although C3 mostly conforms to C syntax, the most obvious change is requiring `fn` in front of the functions. This is to simplify searching for…

    2022 · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hi! I've been working on the flipjump project, a programming language with 1 opcode: flip (invert) a bit, then jump (unconditionally). So a bit-flip followed by more bit-flips. It's effectively a bunch of NOT gates. This language, as poor as it sounds, is RICH. Today I completed my compiler from C to FlipJump. It takes C files, and compiles them into flipjump. I finished testing it all today, and it works! My key interest in this project is to stretch what we know of computing and to prove that anything can be done even with minimal power. I appreciate you reading my announcement, and be…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Long-simmering side project that is finally ready to see the light. HAMTs are a cool persistent data structure and implementing one has been a lot of fun. Beyond the code, there is likely some value in the extensive and largely complete implementation docs; basic benchmarks are linked in the README, too. Kind of aiming to be "the libavl for HAMTs". That is obviously a high and aspirational bar but a distinct possibility if it stirs up a little interest and/or contribution. Anyways, it's time for this to go out, collect feedback and maybe even some use outside of toy projects. Let me…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Bake, A build system for building, testing and running C & C++ projects - SanderMertens/bake

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Concurrency library for C (coroutines). Contribute to tidwall/neco development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Hi HN! Korean high school senior here, about to start CS in college. I built a browser engine from scratch in C++ to understand how browsers work. First time using C++, 8 weeks of development, lots of debugging—but it works! Features: - HTML parsing with error correction - CSS cascade and inheritance - Block/inline layout engine - Async image loading + caching - Link navigation + history Hardest parts: - String parsing(html, css) - Rendering - Image Caching & Layout Reflowing What I learned (beyond code): - Systematic debugging is crucial - Ship with known bugs rather than chase…

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    I love C and C++, but setting up projects can sometimes be a pain. Every time I wanted to start something new I'd spend the first hour writing CMakeLists.txt, figuring out find_package, copying boilerplate from my last project, and googling why my library isn't linking. By the time the project was actually set up I'd lost all momentum. So, I built Craft - a lightweight build and workflow tool for C and C++. Instead of writing CMake, your project configuration goes in a simple craft.toml: [project] name = "my_app" version = "0.1.0" language = "c" c_standard = 99 [build] type = "executable"…

    Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Learn programming by building real systems from scratch. Redis, Git, a database, a compiler — every lesson is choose, write, run.

    Jul 2026 · shipthatcode.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17FC

    C Systems Lab is a free interactive web course that walks through 10 modules of systems programming in C: compilation, pointers, dynamic memory, structs, the preprocessor, file I/O, processes and signals, sockets, concurrency, and a tour below C. The free course itself is the link. Get the free sample of the PDF by adding "/demo" to the link. Since I don't necessarily like the paywall aspect of it, you may ask me for the complete edition by reaching out via email. Happy to answer questions about the content or the curriculum design.

    May 2026 · csystemslab.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Copper is an operating system for robots - build, run, and replay your entire robot deterministically. - Home · copper-project/copper-rs Wiki

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19UT

    Hey HN, I wanted to get more familiar with C programming, *nix socket programming and C compilation, so I wrote this "web" ""server"". It's running on a tiny SBC in my office, and there's as little as possible between you and it. Happy for you to try and break it, hopefully with something more interesting than a DoS though :) Please let me know if you find any issues.

    2025 · unsafehttp.benren.au · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Experimental C implementation of “Breaking the Sorting Barrier for Directed Single-Source Shortest Paths” by Ran Duan, Jiayi Mao, Xiao Mao, Xinkai Shu, and Longhui Yin (STOC 2025) - danalec/DMMSY-SSSP

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    A digital logic simulation written in C. Contribute to rzscheck/logic development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    minimal freestanding C library for bare-metal i386 development - marssaxman/startc

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    A minimal viable programming language on top of liblgpp - codr7/alang

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A fun toy memory allocator (not thread safe, that's a future TODO). I also wanted to explain how I approached it, so I also wrote a tutorial blog post (~20 minute read) covering the code which you can find the link to in the README.

    Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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