Digression: inline keyword
inline with functions
The inline calling convention forces a function to be inlined at all call sites.
If the function cannot be inlined, it is a compile-time error.
This what the creator of the Zig language wrote:
It’s best to let the compiler decide when to inline a function, except for these scenarios:
- You want to change how many stack frames are in the call stack, for debugging purposes
- You want the comptime-ness of the arguments to propagate to the return value of the function
- Performance measurements demand it. Don’t guess!
Otherwise you actually end up restricting what the compiler is allowed to do
when you use inline which can harm binary size, compilation speed, and even
runtime performance.
So basically he's recommending not to use it unless you have a good and measurable reason to do so.
Other uses of inline
From the official language reference:
Other uses of inline are very different, because they usually allow loops to
be evaluated at compile time. I've never used them, since I never felt the need
for them, so I can't tell you more.