Show HN: Canon-C – a semantic C library

[Fikoko]

I kept rewriting the same low-level patterns in C — arenas, memory management, error handling, vectors, parsing, file I/O, iteration utilities — and existing libraries either hide allocation, impose frameworks, or lack consistency.

So I built Canon-C, a small, composable set of explicit C modules that:

Treat C as an execution backend, not a semantic authority

Add meaning through libraries, not syntax

Make intent visible directly in the API: ownership, lifetime, and failure handling are explicit

Modules are organized by semantic layers:

core/ — memory, lifetime, scope, primitives

semantics/ — Option, Result, error handling

data/ — vectors, queues, stacks, string builders

algo/ — map, filter, fold, sort, search

util/ — safe string ops, file I/O, logging, timing

Design highlights:

Header-only

No runtime or global state

No hidden allocation (except in clearly marked convenience layers)

Fully explicit behavior

I’d love feedback from anyone doing systems programming, embedded C, or serious C projects, especially on macro-heavy vs. modular design, semantic clarity, and practical usage.

[oguz-ismail2]

Nit pick, but

>FILE* f = fopen(path, "rb");

>...

>if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END) != 0) return option_charp_none();

>long len = ftell(f);

does ISO C guarantee this'll work these days? How come there's no fread+realloc fallback?

[Fikoko]

Good catch! You’re right, ftell + fseek isn’t guaranteed to work for all files in ISO C, especially very large or non-seekable ones. In practice, for typical binary files it works fine, but I’ll add a note in the docs. I will consider a fallback using fread + realloc for full portability.