Frequently Asked Questions
Are there bugs?
Yes, most likely. The compiler does self-compile ~70k lines correctly. Extensive fuzzing has been used to validate correctness and performance. Please report bugs in the minc-dev repository on GitHub:
github.com/SpacesOfPlay/minc-dev/issues
Are you planning to support platform X?
Possibly. For specific requests, create a feature request at:
github.com/SpacesOfPlay/minc-dev/issues
Is minc open source?
No. minc is free to use for individuals, small companies, and education, but the source code is not publicly available.
Do I need a license? Is it free?
minc is free if any of the following apply:
- Your annual revenue is below €100,000
- You are using minc for personal, non-commercial projects
- You are using minc for education or academic research
- You are evaluating minc for up to 30 days
If your annual revenue is €100,000 or more and you use minc commercially, you need a commercial license (€100 per 3 developers, one-time).
How good is minc's code optimizer?
Pretty good. On most well-formed code the generated binary will have similar performance to MSVC/Clang. The design principle is to provide predictable, structural transformations that reward well-written code. You will find examples where MSVC/Clang are much better, especially around constant folding or transformations that turn inefficient code into optimal solutions. Auto-vectorization to AVX2 is not yet supported. Please submit bug reports for extreme differences.
Does minc have a garbage collector?
No. Memory management is manual, similar to C. minc provides alloc and free as builtins, and defer for deterministic cleanup.
Does minc have a package manager?
Not at this time. minc uses #include for file inclusion and import for modules. There is no centralized package registry. External code is included directly in your project.
What about IDE support?
There is a VS Code extension that provides syntax highlighting, debugging and complete LSP support. Any editor with gdb support can be used for debugging.
How do I get help?
For bug reports and feature requests, use the GitHub issue tracker.