5 ms·

Ask HN: What are the most promising/interesting new programming languages?

23 points by baccheion 10y ago

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
Nim, Rust, Erlang/Elixer, Shen, and Haskell are my picks. But if you don't already know C and Scheme, go back and learn those. The classics can teach you as much is the cutting edge.
Tankenstein 10y ago
I Would say Elixir is a big up-and-comer. The BEAM VM is really a marvellous piece of engineering, and now that there's a language that looks nice and feels nice (no offense erlang) i think a LOT of people will be looking that way. Especially since nowadays people are getting more into websockets and realtime communication, elixir is perfect for this.
- petervandijck 10y ago
  Plus one for Elixir, it's what my smart friends who would learn Scala 5 years ago are doing now.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jwdunne 10y ago
  It sounds quite petty but the string support in Elixir looks great after reading over some Erlang material not too long ago.
- ncx 10y ago
  Elixir is great. Simple and powerful. I just wish the size of the Erlang distribution was small so that I could use Elixir for desktop apps as well, as currently it would require a 100 mb VM for people to run even a 10 line script. I have not used Elixir for anything big. I would really love to try elixir someday for bigger apps. Is there a Elixir-to-JS compiler somewhere? Nodejs is much smaller in size than BEAM. So distributing Elixir apps would be easier.
- arrmn 10y ago
  I'm reading a lot about Elixir on HN, what are good resources to start learning it?
  - alexgaribay 10y ago
    I recommend the books Programming Elixir and Elixir in Action. The latter is a little more advanced in terms of expecting some prior knowledge in functional programming but is a fantastic book nonetheless as well as a great resource for a basic understanding of OTP. The Elixir-lang website also is very good for understanding some of the basics related to the language. The language itself has great documentation.
- BlackjackCF 10y ago
  I agree. I'm learning Elixir right now, and I think it'll inject a lot more enthusiasm back into the Erlang stack. Phoenix also feels like the extension to Rails.
- ljw1001 10y ago
  Just looked at elixer and it seems really cool, but I'd like it better, i think, if it had typing like golang interfaces. (I'm assuming the comparisons to ruby mean that it is very loosely typed, but I could be wrong). I wouldn't want to build a highly distributed app without a bunch of compiler help.
  - matt_o 10y ago
    Elixir has _something_ similar: Behaviors - http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/typespecs-and-behaviours.html http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/typespecs-and-behavio... While this isn't exactly what you like, I thought I'd throw it out there because I find it a fair substitute, especially when paired with Dialyzer - a static code analysis tool: http://erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html http://erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html
philip142au 10y ago
Idris
k__ 10y ago
I like the ideas of Rust and the syntax of Nim.
throwaway10453 10y ago
Swift.
ncx 10y ago
For me, it's - 1) Red - Small in size; Readable, compact and concise code. Its a powerful All-in-One Package with lots of great features as well as easy for newcomers. It can be used for low level as well as high level programming. http://www.red-lang.org/ http://www.red-lang.org/ 2) Rust - Its powerful concepts of borrowing and ownership, and its tight security features are just great. But its kinda verbose. 3) Nim - Clean, readable code. Fast compile times as well as compiled code. Lots of good ideas in it. Different gc's for different use cases are great.
- partisan 10y ago
  I am a big fan of Nim. It's one of the few languages that gets me excited lately as it feels like you can do pretty much anything that you could do in C++ but in simplified code and shorter dev times.
- imakesnowflakes 10y ago
  Can red compile GUI apps in MacOS? I just tried and it errored out..
  - ncx 10y ago
    The current 0.6.0 release contains only Windows GUI. Linux and OSX support are a work in progress. Lots of stuff implemented, lots still missing. You can download qtxie's branch with the WIP code here - https://github.com/qtxie/red/tree/MacOSX-GUI?files=1 https://github.com/qtxie/red/tree/MacOSX-GUI?files=1 Read the Readme file for instructions on how to compile red code using sources. For any questions - https://gitter.im/red/red https://gitter.im/red/red
yolesaber 10y ago
Perl 6 ducks
tenismyanswer 10y ago
C#
miguelrochefort 10y ago
Elm
squiguy7 10y ago
I will have to say Rust has got me the most excited. But Kotlin and Elixir are also interesting in their design approaches.

23 points by baccheion 10y ago

Nim, Rust, Erlang/Elixer, Shen, and Haskell are my picks. But if you don't already know C and Scheme, go back and learn those. The classics can teach you as much is the cutting edge.

Tankenstein 10y ago

I Would say Elixir is a big up-and-comer. The BEAM VM is really a marvellous piece of engineering, and now that there's a language that looks nice and feels nice (no offense erlang) i think a LOT of people will be looking that way. Especially since nowadays people are getting more into websockets and realtime communication, elixir is perfect for this.

petervandijck 10y ago
Plus one for Elixir, it's what my smart friends who would learn Scala 5 years ago are doing now.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jwdunne 10y ago
It sounds quite petty but the string support in Elixir looks great after reading over some Erlang material not too long ago.
ncx 10y ago
Elixir is great. Simple and powerful. I just wish the size of the Erlang distribution was small so that I could use Elixir for desktop apps as well, as currently it would require a 100 mb VM for people to run even a 10 line script. I have not used Elixir for anything big. I would really love to try elixir someday for bigger apps. Is there a Elixir-to-JS compiler somewhere? Nodejs is much smaller in size than BEAM. So distributing Elixir apps would be easier.
arrmn 10y ago
I'm reading a lot about Elixir on HN, what are good resources to start learning it?
- alexgaribay 10y ago
  I recommend the books Programming Elixir and Elixir in Action. The latter is a little more advanced in terms of expecting some prior knowledge in functional programming but is a fantastic book nonetheless as well as a great resource for a basic understanding of OTP. The Elixir-lang website also is very good for understanding some of the basics related to the language. The language itself has great documentation.
BlackjackCF 10y ago
I agree. I'm learning Elixir right now, and I think it'll inject a lot more enthusiasm back into the Erlang stack. Phoenix also feels like the extension to Rails.
ljw1001 10y ago
Just looked at elixer and it seems really cool, but I'd like it better, i think, if it had typing like golang interfaces. (I'm assuming the comparisons to ruby mean that it is very loosely typed, but I could be wrong). I wouldn't want to build a highly distributed app without a bunch of compiler help.
- matt_o 10y ago
  Elixir has _something_ similar: Behaviors - http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/typespecs-and-behaviours.html http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/typespecs-and-behavio... While this isn't exactly what you like, I thought I'd throw it out there because I find it a fair substitute, especially when paired with Dialyzer - a static code analysis tool: http://erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html http://erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html

philip142au 10y ago

Idris

k__ 10y ago

I like the ideas of Rust and the syntax of Nim.

throwaway10453 10y ago

Swift.

ncx 10y ago

For me, it's - 1) Red - Small in size; Readable, compact and concise code. Its a powerful All-in-One Package with lots of great features as well as easy for newcomers. It can be used for low level as well as high level programming. http://www.red-lang.org/ http://www.red-lang.org/ 2) Rust - Its powerful concepts of borrowing and ownership, and its tight security features are just great. But its kinda verbose. 3) Nim - Clean, readable code. Fast compile times as well as compiled code. Lots of good ideas in it. Different gc's for different use cases are great.

partisan 10y ago
I am a big fan of Nim. It's one of the few languages that gets me excited lately as it feels like you can do pretty much anything that you could do in C++ but in simplified code and shorter dev times.
imakesnowflakes 10y ago
Can red compile GUI apps in MacOS? I just tried and it errored out..
- ncx 10y ago
  The current 0.6.0 release contains only Windows GUI. Linux and OSX support are a work in progress. Lots of stuff implemented, lots still missing. You can download qtxie's branch with the WIP code here - https://github.com/qtxie/red/tree/MacOSX-GUI?files=1 https://github.com/qtxie/red/tree/MacOSX-GUI?files=1 Read the Readme file for instructions on how to compile red code using sources. For any questions - https://gitter.im/red/red https://gitter.im/red/red

yolesaber 10y ago

Perl 6 ducks

tenismyanswer 10y ago

miguelrochefort 10y ago

Elm

squiguy7 10y ago

I will have to say Rust has got me the most excited. But Kotlin and Elixir are also interesting in their design approaches.