NextStd (ns)

NextStd is a modern, type-safe alternative to C's standard <stdio.h> and <string.h>.

It is designed to provide the ergonomics of high-level languages—like automatic type detection, memory safety, and zero-allocation string optimizations—while maintaining strict C compatibility. It achieves this by using Rust as a robust, memory-safe backend while exposing a clean, macro-driven C API.

View the CHANGELOG.md

Important

NextStd is currently in active development. You cannot install it globally to your system yet (e.g., #include <ns.h>). For now, clone the repository and run the examples in the examples/ directory.

Features

• Type-Safe Printing: No more format specifiers (%d, %s, %f). The ns_print() macro automatically detects types at compile-time using C11 _Generic.
• Memory-Safe Strings: The ns_string type uses Small String Optimization (SSO). Strings under 24 bytes are stack-allocated (zero heap fragmentation) , while larger strings safely scale to the heap.
• Rust Backend: The core I/O and memory logic is written in Rust, mathematically preventing buffer overflows and segmentation faults.
• Zero-Config Build: A single Makefile handles building the Rust workspace, compiling the C examples, and linking everything together.

Current Support

• Integer Printing (int)
• Float/Double Printing (float / double)
• Standard C String Printing (char*)
• Type-Safe SSO Strings (ns_string)
• Separate print and println functions
• Cargo Workspace Architecture
• User Input via ns_read()
• Custom Error types (ns_error_t)
• Printing Variables + Strings (Interpolation/Formatting)

Quick Start

The quickest way to see NextStd in action is to run the built-in examples. See BUILD.md for prerequisite dependencies.

List all available examples:

make list

Run a specific example

To run a specific example, for eg: 01_print_integer use the below command

make 01_print_integer

The example file name can be taken from the output of make list

To see more detailed usage instructions, check out USAGE.md