I have an important metric for new "systems" languages: does the language allow NULL for it's commonly used pointer type. Rust by default does not (References may _not_ be NULL). Here is where I think Odin makes a mistake.

In the linked blog post Odin mentions ^os.File which means pointer to File (somewhat like *FILE in C). Theoretically the pointer can be NULL. In practice, maybe I would need to check for NULL or maybe I would not (I would have to scan the Odin function's documentation to see what the contract is).

In Rust, if a function returns &File or &mut File or Box<File> etc. I know that it will never be NULL.

So Odin repeats the famous "billion-dollar mistake" (Tony Hoare). Zig in comparison is bit more fussy about NULL in pointers so it wins my vote.

Currently this is my biggest complaint about Odin. While Odin packages a lot of power programming idioms (and feels a bit higher level and ergonomic than Zig) it makes the same mistake that Golang, C and others make regarding allowing NULL in the default pointer type.

PS: I just read a funny comment on YT video: "Odin feels like a DSL for writing games masquerading as a systems language."

Delighted to see more work will be focused there in the future.

I won't say with confidence either is better than the other; but I think both are worth a look.

Odin (iiuc) always makes you manage memory; Vlang permits you to, but does also have linking to the Boehm GC that it will generate for you in most cases.

Vlang and Odin in terms of syntax and legibility goals... well. I suggest if you're interested, just quick look will say more than I can. :)