This developer, who completes Advent of Code in a new programming language every year, chose Zig for 2023 and found it to be a modernized C with a unique approach to error handling and type manipulation. Zig's standout features include detectable illegal behavior and comptime, which offer improved error detection and type-level programming capabilities respectively. However, Zig could benefit from enhancements in developer experience, including a better language server, clearer error messages, and improved documentation.