4 ms·

Nim core developer wanted

157 points by evacchi 10y ago

throwaway7645 10y ago
Glad to see small languages like this getting support and traction.
brink 10y ago
Nim donation page is here: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/nim https://www.bountysource.com/teams/nim
tray5 10y ago
Hope they find someone, nim is a very good language for how small and independent it is. Especially considering its operating in the same realm as heavyweights like rust and go.
crux 10y ago
I'm very bullish on Nim. We're crossing the finish line of putting our first Nim code into production at work and overall it's been a pretty positive experience.
- meddlepal 10y ago
  I'm interested in hearing about your experience! Pitfalls? Major positives? Have you considered writing about it?
  - crux 10y ago
    I have! And I will... I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The main takeaway is specific to my use-case: writing a dynamic library that can be called from within Python code. The main positive and negative are two sides of the same coin: since Nim compiles to C, you get to use all the existing tools designed for doing C FFI in Python, and don't have to write any C wrappers. And since Nim isn't C, there's still a little bit of detective work involved in replicating all the argument types, GC behavior, etc, that is involved in Nim and the specifics of its realization in C.
    - emsy 10y ago
      Have you encountered any major compiler bugs? Nim looks great, but the list of open issues on GitHub would scare me from using it in production. Or isn't it as severe in real-world use?
      - audunw 10y ago
        emsy: I'm not OP, but I encountered quite a few compiler bugs when I was using Nim a couple of years ago, but that was only because I tried to push the macro system really hard. Generally most bugs are related to newer features. I never experienced any bugs with the core features/library.
      - zielmicha 10y ago
        There are compiler bugs, but almost all of them are related to advanced metaprogramming. If you stick to "normal" metaprogramming (generics, templates, sane macros), compiler works well.
      - crux 10y ago
        I haven't encountered any compiler bugs, no. I know that they're still really pushing on some of the further reaches—what comes to mind is statically verifying that a value is never `nil`, as well as some of the more industrial-strength elements of the metaprogramming system—but both of those are very much optional.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
jbpetersen 10y ago
Nim is one of those things that seems very well put together yet I can't currently see what role it fills in the wider market for programming languages and different types of communities around them. What kind of stuff is particularly popular among Nim users compared to communities for other languages? What kind of stuff do the people working on Nim want to use it / see it used for?
- jestar_jokin 10y ago
  Games, or soft real-time systems (like audio tools; synths, DAWs, or editors). Potentially, cross-platform mobile apps. Thanks to its approach to GC, you can impose a limit on the time to spend on GC between ticks, so no unpredictable performance stuttering. I see it as having nice "functional-ish" syntax like Python, but with static types.
  - hubert123 10y ago
    A limit on GC time might then obviously lead to high or too high memory use, potentially?
    - Meegul 10y ago
      Not OP or aware of Nim's specific implementation, but in some cases, yes. However in a fps-sensitive situation like a game, it just takes ~16ms of GC before you've missed at least one refresh. By limiting the time to something lower, we can distribute this time such that the user doesn't notice any stuttering, provided the GC events were spaced out enough.
- Sir_Substance 10y ago
  >I can't currently see what role it fills in the wider market for programming languages "As friendly as python or ruby, but compiles to binary for ease of deployment and speed" is currently an under-served market niche. Rust, Go and Swift are all candidates for the space (with the current defacto standard of friendliness in compiled languages being c++), but I find none is quite a match for me.
123younas786 10y ago
http://lootumaza.com/avira-free-antivirus-15-0-25-148-download/ http://lootumaza.com/avira-free-antivirus-15-0-25-148-downlo...
rurban 10y ago
I thought the new GC v2 multithreaded has just landed 2 weeks ago. I'm only aware of one non-mt related open GC bug.

157 points by evacchi 10y ago

throwaway7645 10y ago

Glad to see small languages like this getting support and traction.

brink 10y ago

Nim donation page is here: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/nim https://www.bountysource.com/teams/nim

tray5 10y ago

Hope they find someone, nim is a very good language for how small and independent it is. Especially considering its operating in the same realm as heavyweights like rust and go.

crux 10y ago

I'm very bullish on Nim. We're crossing the finish line of putting our first Nim code into production at work and overall it's been a pretty positive experience.

meddlepal 10y ago
I'm interested in hearing about your experience! Pitfalls? Major positives? Have you considered writing about it?
- crux 10y ago
  I have! And I will... I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The main takeaway is specific to my use-case: writing a dynamic library that can be called from within Python code. The main positive and negative are two sides of the same coin: since Nim compiles to C, you get to use all the existing tools designed for doing C FFI in Python, and don't have to write any C wrappers. And since Nim isn't C, there's still a little bit of detective work involved in replicating all the argument types, GC behavior, etc, that is involved in Nim and the specifics of its realization in C.
  - emsy 10y ago
    Have you encountered any major compiler bugs? Nim looks great, but the list of open issues on GitHub would scare me from using it in production. Or isn't it as severe in real-world use?
    - audunw 10y ago
      emsy: I'm not OP, but I encountered quite a few compiler bugs when I was using Nim a couple of years ago, but that was only because I tried to push the macro system really hard. Generally most bugs are related to newer features. I never experienced any bugs with the core features/library.
    - zielmicha 10y ago
      There are compiler bugs, but almost all of them are related to advanced metaprogramming. If you stick to "normal" metaprogramming (generics, templates, sane macros), compiler works well.
    - crux 10y ago
      I haven't encountered any compiler bugs, no. I know that they're still really pushing on some of the further reaches—what comes to mind is statically verifying that a value is never `nil`, as well as some of the more industrial-strength elements of the metaprogramming system—but both of those are very much optional.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

jbpetersen 10y ago

Nim is one of those things that seems very well put together yet I can't currently see what role it fills in the wider market for programming languages and different types of communities around them. What kind of stuff is particularly popular among Nim users compared to communities for other languages? What kind of stuff do the people working on Nim want to use it / see it used for?

jestar_jokin 10y ago
Games, or soft real-time systems (like audio tools; synths, DAWs, or editors). Potentially, cross-platform mobile apps. Thanks to its approach to GC, you can impose a limit on the time to spend on GC between ticks, so no unpredictable performance stuttering. I see it as having nice "functional-ish" syntax like Python, but with static types.
- hubert123 10y ago
  A limit on GC time might then obviously lead to high or too high memory use, potentially?
  - Meegul 10y ago
    Not OP or aware of Nim's specific implementation, but in some cases, yes. However in a fps-sensitive situation like a game, it just takes ~16ms of GC before you've missed at least one refresh. By limiting the time to something lower, we can distribute this time such that the user doesn't notice any stuttering, provided the GC events were spaced out enough.
Sir_Substance 10y ago
>I can't currently see what role it fills in the wider market for programming languages "As friendly as python or ruby, but compiles to binary for ease of deployment and speed" is currently an under-served market niche. Rust, Go and Swift are all candidates for the space (with the current defacto standard of friendliness in compiled languages being c++), but I find none is quite a match for me.

123younas786 10y ago

http://lootumaza.com/avira-free-antivirus-15-0-25-148-download/ http://lootumaza.com/avira-free-antivirus-15-0-25-148-downlo...

rurban 10y ago

I thought the new GC v2 multithreaded has just landed 2 weeks ago. I'm only aware of one non-mt related open GC bug.