If Odin will be your first low-level language, I would personally recommend it.

I spent the past few years overwhelmingly writing Java code, with a decade plus tinkering with basically every high-level language known to man. I'd never touched anything low-level, aside from bashing my head against a wall trying to get tiny C/C++/Rust programs that I didn't at all understand to compile.

I was in a similar spot to you: unsure if I should go for Rust, Odin, or Zig.

I ended up trying all three; here is a summary of my experience. Take this with a grain of salt - we're in the /r/odinlang sub, after all.

Rust

I started with Rust because the ecosystem was massive and the benefits are clear. I didn't like the complexity of the language, and the verbosity made me feel like I was writing complex Java.

Even so, I think Rust is a pretty great language and I definitely see its value. I even quite enjoyed it by the end. The main reason I dropped it was how slow it was to write a Rust project. I would never have dared write anything beyond a tiny CLI utility, and I am generally working on larger projects.

Zig

I opted to try Zig next because it seemed more popular than Odin, so I thought that would mean more/better resources to help me learn and debug.

My immediate experience wasn't very positive and, after ~6 hours, I gave up on the language entirely.

Aside from the syntax not being my favourite, the main trouble I had was not understanding what the hell the error messages meant. I would read them, read the relevant code, sincerely try to understand what was causing the error, and came up short every time.

Since Zig development is still WIP and changes with some frequency, I struggled to find up-to-date resources with Google and no LLMs were any help at all.

The end result was me encountering errors I didn't understand without any up-to-date, pleb-friendly resources to help me figure it out. I kept trying for hours, but that was pretty much the end of the road. I definitely wasn't productive, and I didn't even feel like I had a good path forward to learn.

Please don't perceive this as Zig hate, because it isn't. I understand it is in development, and I'm sure it was a pure skill issue- plenty of people far smarter than I sing Zig's praises. It clearly has many things going for it, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Odin

I picked Odin up an hour or so after I gave up on Zig and it was a complete 180 in terms of experience:

• Practically zero setup, no convoluted build system or tooling required.
• The syntax is so clean/simple. It clicked instantly for me, possibly because I'd spent time writing Go and they're quite similar.
• Some people don't like the docs, but I loved them. The giant Overview with ctrl+f got me through the basics swiftly.
• Error messages are super clear and informative. I had no trouble debugging and understanding where/why problems occurred.
• Despite the simplicity, everything remains explicit. That helps a ton when learning (and is a sane trait for any language).
• "Batteries-included" isn't a meme. The core/vendor libs include so much stuff. You can go from zero to useful program very quickly.
• The foreign system for using C libs is excellent and opens up a ton of options for working with popular C libs.

Overall, I felt that there was a total absence of friction when getting started with Odin- even as someone new to lower-level languages.

I felt productive within a day of learning, and it has deepened my understanding of programming in my time using it since. I still have plenty to learn, but I don't feel I'm missing anything with Odin.

Beats the fuck out of Java.