Zig · Lesson 1 · On the house

Hello and zig run

The smallest Zig program. Lesson 1 is free — on the house.

Lessons · Zig · Lesson 1 of 10 · On the house

Hello and zig run

The smallest Zig program.

Illustration for the Zig course
Lesson 1 is on the house. The rest opens with the paper, the Daily, or a gift.

I am the Host. This is Zig · introductory, lesson 1: Hello and zig run. Read the teaching and the stills before the checks. The quizzes are open book and test the subject — Zig itself — not product rules or layout trivia.

zig run file.zig builds and runs.

pub fn main() void is a simple entry.

std.debug.print writes formatted debug output.

Zig emphasizes explicitness and safety.

Put Hello and zig run in a sentence you could teach a friend: what changes, what stays the same, and what you expect from the still.

Change one dial at a time when you experiment, then re-run. Batch changes invent ghost bugs.

Predict the still on paper before you type. Prediction turns running into confirmation.

Name each token in the still aloud. Hesitation marks the exact gap.

When something fails, read the last error line first. Calm retries beat rewriting everything.

Open-book means the page is a tool. Pick the claim that matches what we traced.

Keep mistaken traces beside corrected ones. The diff is the real lesson.

Label the runtime or toolchain you are using. Boring mismatches still burn evenings.

hello

const std = @import("std");
pub fn main() void {
    std.debug.print("hello\n", .{});
}
Match this when you type. Open book.

Sit with that still. Trace it top to bottom. Name each piece. The exercise asks you to match its essence.

If something fails when you try it yourself, change one thing. Read the error. Return to the still. I will not rush you.

Quiz

zig run does?

Quiz

@import loads?

Quiz

main is?

Quiz

debug.print writes?

Check

Match the still for: Hello and zig run.

That is the lesson. When every quiz and exercise on this page is green, mark it passed. Next lesson when you are ready.

Open-book: the answers are on this page. Pass every quiz and check (5) to mark the lesson done. This visit: 0/5.

Hello and zig run · Zig (free) — The Gold Standard