4 ms·

I used to get excited about new-language posts on here, but I've gotten weary of them over time. So many are just slight variations on standard syntaxes that me

by _bxg1 8y ago

I used to get excited about new-language posts on here, but I've gotten weary of them over time. So many are just slight variations on standard syntaxes that meet their creator's preferences. It's rare to see anything that's radical, and therefore truly interesting.

LyndsySimon 8y ago
I see Nim as inhabiting an interesting space between Lisp and Python/Ruby/Perl. I wouldn't say Nim is "radical", but it is interesting in that it combines ideas in a way that I've not seen in other languages. Whether or not it really takes off, it's a good thing that it's around - if nothing else, it's a slightly easier way for devs who work primarily in higher-level languages like Python and Ruby to encounter concepts they might not otherwise encounter, like macros and a complex type system.
- a012 8y ago
  Can you share some works one can do with Nim?
  - jblindsay 8y ago
    I used Nim a little while back to write a small CLI program that performs a feature-preserving smoothing of digital terrain data (see https://github.com/jblindsay/fp_denoise https://github.com/jblindsay/fp_denoise). I could have used, and have used, several of languages for this type of application. But I was interested in learning Nim and getting a feel for how well it lends itself to spatial analysis. I was quite pleased with the experience overall. The language feels a lot like a high-level language with the speed of a systems language. The one thing that I didn't find particularly easy was concurrency. I still haven't managed to figure that out but that is more a comment on my limitations than the language. Nonetheless, I can certainly see Nim taking off for data science once it hits v1.0.
  - PMunch 8y ago
    Not 100% sure what you mean by works, but Nim has been used to create various things. For one the entire Nim forum: https://forum.nim-lang.org/ https://forum.nim-lang.org/ is written in Nim (both back-end and front-end), the game "Reel Valley" has been written in Nim, there is a company doing Ethereum blockchain using Nim: https://status.im/ https://status.im/, and many more.
    - a012 8y ago
      That's impressive. I'm curious whether I can use Nim in sysadmin job.
      - kaushalmodi 8y ago
        I am dabbling in Nim, and plan to replace bash/Python scripts with Nim. So far it looks really promising! Few projects: nbuild[1], ntangle[2]. I wouldn't say that these are exemplary projects.. but they just show that Nim can replace bash/Python for command line utilities. [1]: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/nbuild/ https://github.com/kaushalmodi/nbuild/ [2]: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ntangle/ https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ntangle/
      - sigzero 8y ago
        I'd say "it depends". If I was a solo sysadmin or a small team, I would probably use it. Big teams are harder to get "buy in" for a new language.
      - gtrs 8y ago
        Totally feasible, I ported Python code to Nim and it was super easy and I got a huge performance boost. If performance isn't a big deal, the other thing I've noticed is that compilation guarantees a much higher quality of code compared to interpretation. At least compared to Python, I have been hit by bad code which didn't get caught because there was no test for it. I've not faced that with Nim yet. No doubt you can still have issues but it's one less thing to worry about.
        kungtotte 8y ago
PMunch 8y ago
This tutorial obviously only scratches the surface of what is possible in Nim. If you want to dig deeper I recommend reading through the learnxinyminutes entry, along with maybe https://xmonader.github.io/nimdays https://xmonader.github.io/nimdays to see some examples. Then of course the official tutorials. Or if you just want to dig into the crazy stuff to see what is possible https://hookrace.net/blog/introduction-to-metaprogramming-in-nim/ https://hookrace.net/blog/introduction-to-metaprogramming-in...
drcongo 8y ago
Nim isn't a new language, it's been around a while.
- ofrzeta 8y ago
  Given "the compiler is in development and some important features are still missing" (quote from the FAQ) it would surely qualify as new.
  - TylerE 8y ago
    It was first posted to HN in 2013. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6820474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6820474
- reacharavindh 8y ago
  There's something about not hitting 1.0. It instills doubt on adoption that things will change in a breaking way soon, and that you're going to need to rewrite your stuff in potentially non-trivial way. I liked playing with Nim in spare time. But, I don't think I'll use it for anything I care about to maintain for a long time.
  - gtrs 8y ago
    Every language has faced challenges with change, nothing specific to Nim. And 1.0 is a distraction, if the language version has all the features you want, you can use it as long as you want. The code is also open and an unbearable bug can be easily backported. If you do want the new cooler features, then ya, you may need to port your code but that's the case with any compiler update - you need to run a full regression at the very least.
    - kjeetgill 8y ago
      1.0 _may be_ a distraction but I think it's a fair one. It's a common enough convention that pre-1.0 versions are the developer's way of saying, "please please please don't treat this as ready and production quality. We're still figuring some things out and haven't settled on some key choices." If that's not what the developers are trying to communicate with a pre-1.0 version I do wonder what they're gating 1.0 on. What needs finalization? Documentation?
simias 8y ago
Nim is definitively niche but it's not really new, Wikipedia tells me that it's 10 years old (older than Rust [2010] or Go [2009] for instance). It just never got enough traction to really find its place in the ecosystem.
- dom96 8y ago
  > It just never got enough traction to really find its place in the ecosystem. Probably a bigger factor is that Nim doesn't have a well-known organisation such as Google/Mozilla behind it.

by _bxg1 8y ago

LyndsySimon 8y ago

I see Nim as inhabiting an interesting space between Lisp and Python/Ruby/Perl. I wouldn't say Nim is "radical", but it is interesting in that it combines ideas in a way that I've not seen in other languages. Whether or not it really takes off, it's a good thing that it's around - if nothing else, it's a slightly easier way for devs who work primarily in higher-level languages like Python and Ruby to encounter concepts they might not otherwise encounter, like macros and a complex type system.

a012 8y ago
Can you share some works one can do with Nim?
- jblindsay 8y ago
  I used Nim a little while back to write a small CLI program that performs a feature-preserving smoothing of digital terrain data (see https://github.com/jblindsay/fp_denoise https://github.com/jblindsay/fp_denoise). I could have used, and have used, several of languages for this type of application. But I was interested in learning Nim and getting a feel for how well it lends itself to spatial analysis. I was quite pleased with the experience overall. The language feels a lot like a high-level language with the speed of a systems language. The one thing that I didn't find particularly easy was concurrency. I still haven't managed to figure that out but that is more a comment on my limitations than the language. Nonetheless, I can certainly see Nim taking off for data science once it hits v1.0.
- PMunch 8y ago
  Not 100% sure what you mean by works, but Nim has been used to create various things. For one the entire Nim forum: https://forum.nim-lang.org/ https://forum.nim-lang.org/ is written in Nim (both back-end and front-end), the game "Reel Valley" has been written in Nim, there is a company doing Ethereum blockchain using Nim: https://status.im/ https://status.im/, and many more.
  - a012 8y ago
    That's impressive. I'm curious whether I can use Nim in sysadmin job.
    - kaushalmodi 8y ago
      I am dabbling in Nim, and plan to replace bash/Python scripts with Nim. So far it looks really promising! Few projects: nbuild[1], ntangle[2]. I wouldn't say that these are exemplary projects.. but they just show that Nim can replace bash/Python for command line utilities. [1]: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/nbuild/ https://github.com/kaushalmodi/nbuild/ [2]: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ntangle/ https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ntangle/
    - sigzero 8y ago
      I'd say "it depends". If I was a solo sysadmin or a small team, I would probably use it. Big teams are harder to get "buy in" for a new language.
    - gtrs 8y ago
      Totally feasible, I ported Python code to Nim and it was super easy and I got a huge performance boost. If performance isn't a big deal, the other thing I've noticed is that compilation guarantees a much higher quality of code compared to interpretation. At least compared to Python, I have been hit by bad code which didn't get caught because there was no test for it. I've not faced that with Nim yet. No doubt you can still have issues but it's one less thing to worry about.
      - kungtotte 8y ago

PMunch 8y ago

This tutorial obviously only scratches the surface of what is possible in Nim. If you want to dig deeper I recommend reading through the learnxinyminutes entry, along with maybe https://xmonader.github.io/nimdays https://xmonader.github.io/nimdays to see some examples. Then of course the official tutorials. Or if you just want to dig into the crazy stuff to see what is possible https://hookrace.net/blog/introduction-to-metaprogramming-in-nim/ https://hookrace.net/blog/introduction-to-metaprogramming-in...

drcongo 8y ago

Nim isn't a new language, it's been around a while.

ofrzeta 8y ago
Given "the compiler is in development and some important features are still missing" (quote from the FAQ) it would surely qualify as new.
- TylerE 8y ago
  It was first posted to HN in 2013. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6820474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6820474
reacharavindh 8y ago
There's something about not hitting 1.0. It instills doubt on adoption that things will change in a breaking way soon, and that you're going to need to rewrite your stuff in potentially non-trivial way. I liked playing with Nim in spare time. But, I don't think I'll use it for anything I care about to maintain for a long time.
- gtrs 8y ago
  Every language has faced challenges with change, nothing specific to Nim. And 1.0 is a distraction, if the language version has all the features you want, you can use it as long as you want. The code is also open and an unbearable bug can be easily backported. If you do want the new cooler features, then ya, you may need to port your code but that's the case with any compiler update - you need to run a full regression at the very least.
  - kjeetgill 8y ago
    1.0 _may be_ a distraction but I think it's a fair one. It's a common enough convention that pre-1.0 versions are the developer's way of saying, "please please please don't treat this as ready and production quality. We're still figuring some things out and haven't settled on some key choices." If that's not what the developers are trying to communicate with a pre-1.0 version I do wonder what they're gating 1.0 on. What needs finalization? Documentation?

simias 8y ago

Nim is definitively niche but it's not really new, Wikipedia tells me that it's 10 years old (older than Rust [2010] or Go [2009] for instance). It just never got enough traction to really find its place in the ecosystem.

dom96 8y ago
> It just never got enough traction to really find its place in the ecosystem. Probably a bigger factor is that Nim doesn't have a well-known organisation such as Google/Mozilla behind it.