Hardest decision for a project like this: What language to use?

I really want to try out Zig, and it’s handy that it can compile C, too. I am also considering Swift, given that it would be easy to integrate it with macOS and easy to incorporate pieces from the original code for testing/experimenting. It might be that Protobuf will be used, and I only really know how to use it in Go. Rust is an obligatory option, but I don’t like it.

P. S. Don’t expect me to follow the poll results :)