The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source - Why is Zig so cool? (News)

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.

What up, nerds? I'm Jared, and this is Changelog News for the week of Monday, November 17th, 2025. As a longtime fan of all things, Legend of Zelda, I am both excited and terrified of the upcoming live-action movie. Today, Nintendo released the first official pictures of Link and Zelda.

My first impression? But is that high rule, or middle earth? Okay, let's get in to this week's news. Why is Zig so cool? Nilo Stolte begins this article all about Zig's cool parts with some seriously high praise. Quote, I can't think of any other language in my 45 years-long career that surprised me more than Zig. I can easily say that Zig is not only a new programming language, but it's a totally new way to write programs, in my opinion, to say, it's merely a language to replace C or C++, it's a huge understatement, end quote.

Nilo enumerates the features that he found most alluring in the language, but he sticks to the simplest ones to keep the article approachable. For him, it all starts with the compiler. Quote, probably the most incredible virtue of Zig compiler is its ability to compile C code. This associated with the ability to cross-compile code to be run in another architecture, different than the machine where it was originally compiled, is already something quite different. and unique. End quote. He goes on to give a bird's eye view of the Zig language, shows how to build programs and test modules, then provides a deeper view on how low-level programming can be done in Zig. A must read for the Zig curious. How to be creative without taking drugs.

George Mack, who has done a lot to reify my thoughts around agency, takes on creativity in his classically distilled form. Quote, the mistake people make is treating creativity. like productivity. They try to work harder and expect creativity to appear. Instead, sprinkle in new inputs and watch new outputs appear. End quote. What follows are 12 easily acted upon inputs to help increase your creativity. I'll share just one with you to wet your creative appetite. Number five, increase time in the bathroom. Aaron Sorkin, the writer behind a few good men and the West Wing, takes six to eight hot showers per day when you, writing. Another hack is to be slightly over hydrated. You may only have shower thoughts once per day,

but you can increase your bathroom thoughts by drinking more water. What if you don't need MCP at all? Devs have been experimenting with MCP servers long enough now to start forming opinions and conclusions about them. Mario Zekner shares his findings. Quote, after months of a gentic coding frenzy. Twitter is still ablaze with discussions about MCP servers. I previously did some very light benchmarking to see if bash tools or MCP servers are better suited for a specific task. The TLDR, both can be efficient if you take care. End quote. Mario lists a few of the MCP downsides, like they're often inefficient for a specific task, they're hard to extend, and they aren't composable. Quote, I'm a simple boy, so I like simple things. Agents can run bash and write code well.

and code are composable. So what's simpler than having your agent just invoke CLI tools and write code? This is nothing new. We've all been doing this since the beginning. I'd just like to convince you that in many situations you don't need or even want an MCP server, end quote. Follow the link in the newsletter if you're ready, willing, and able to be convinced. It's now time for sponsored news. BuildKit makes Docker builds faster, but how?

Depot just published a comprehensive teardown of BuildKit, the engine that powers every Docker build that you run. Despite millions of developers, relying on it daily, BuildKit has remained surprisingly undocumented. Depot's team spent years reverse engineering it, and now they're sharing what they learned. The key insight, BuildKit is essentially a compiler for containers. It converts your Docker file into an intermediate representation called an LLCB,

or low-level build, which is a directed, acyclic graph that models dependencies between build steps. This enables parallel execution of independent stages and smarter layer caching that doesn't invalidate your entire build when one thing changes. This post from Kyle covers front ends, backends, and every LLB operation type. They even built a free Docker file explorer that visualizes your Docker file as LLB operations in real time. This is useful for understanding exactly what your build is doing, under the hood. Read the full breakdown at depot. Dev or follow the direct link in the newsletter.

On alchemy and AI art, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to mid-evil alchemists attempt to transmute lead into gold. Quote, the materials are different, but the idea is the same. If the owners of AI can bypass the intensive process of procuring art or music or video or any other sort of creative content, then they can, in a way, create their own gold. except it won't work that way, end quote. So far, this is correct, he goes on. Quote, the public reaction to AI generated art of every kind

might have been awe or joy at first, but the longer time goes on, and the more of this newly cheap materials flood the figurative market, the more the reaction becomes decidedly negative. The output of generative AI is novel, to be sure, and it can't even be enjoyable at times, but what it isn't any longer is valuable, end quote. Josh concludes that generative AI is incapable of creating figurative gold

because gold is rare and difficult to come by, and most of its value is due to that rarity. I agree with his premise, but Josh also says this, quote, An ever-growing segment of the population can now sniff out AI art. It's obvious when you know what to look for. It sticks out, it's glaring, it's immediately off-putting. People actively avoid it when they can

and instantly devalue everything associated with it, end quote. He's right, as long as, and only as long as, we humans can still easily sniff out AI art. That's true today, but I fear it's a truth that teeters on a spitting plate atop a long stick balanced on a clown's finger. And no, that sentence was not AI generated, even though it was, kind of lame. AirPods liberated from Apple's ecosystem. LibrePods is a program that unlocks Apple's exclusive AirPods features for Android and Linux systems. Quote, get access to noise control modes, adaptive transparency, ear detection, hearing aid,

customized transparency mode, battery status, and more, all the premium features you paid for, but Apple locked to their ecosystem, end quote. Pretty cool stuff, but downloader beware. As of now, there's a bug in Android's Bluetooth stack that requires you to have rooted the device to get it all working. I'm sure you can manage that, but I'm not sure that you want to manage that. If and when Google fixes the bug, LibrePods will be able to be. be much more approachable to your average Android user. ChangeLog News Classifieds.

This is a new and experimental segment creating opportunity to share your startup, passion project, opinion, big idea, upcoming event, etc. With your fellow 25,000 readers and 30,000 listeners. Feedback, welcome. We have two classifieds for you in our inaugural batch. Number one, Web Tools Weekly, a newsletter for web developers at webtoolsweekly.com. And number two, MediaMasher, an open source browser-based video editor you can find at masher.media. Both those links are in your newsletter where you'll also find another link to book your own classified ad.

That's the news for now, but go and subscribe to the change log newsletter for the full scoop of links worth clicking on, such as the fate of small open source, fully automatic censorship removal for language models, And I think nobody wants AI and Firefox, Mozilla. Get in on the newsletter at changelog. Dot News. Last week on the pod, prolific software blogger, Sean Get a Key, on an episode called Do Repeat Yourself. And a ChangeLog News director's commentary with Adam and myself,

titled Retreat to Attack. Find those in your feed and stay tuned for what's coming up this week. Because on Wednesday, I'm joined by Spencer Chang, creator of the Alive Internet Theory. and on Friday, Chris Benson from Practical AI stops by to tell us all about his work orchestrating fleets of autonomous drones. Have a great week, like, subscribe, and five-star review us if you dig the show. And I'll talk to you again real soon.