7 ms·

Notably missing: APL (Dyalog), J, Prolog, Rebol (Red is on the list), PicoLisp, Racket, Factor, 8th (Reva was mentioned and that was the creator's prior projec

Notably missing: APL (Dyalog), J, Prolog, Rebol (Red is on the list), PicoLisp, Racket, Factor, 8th (Reva was mentioned and that was the creator's prior project), and Haskell. Maybe most of the above are too mainstream for the list.

tyingq 7y ago
Kotlin and Dart also. Maybe the same reason? There isn't a preamble with the reasoning...they just jump right into the list.
- amimetic 7y ago
  Dart is designed to be uninteresting! But certainly Kotlin deserves a mention if Elixir makes it onto the list.
dleslie 7y ago
Carp, Scheme, Elm
yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
I was actually rather pleased that Haskell is omitted. It suggests that Haskell is now mainstream.
II2II 7y ago
> Maybe most of the above are too mainstream for the list. While an interesting language may be obscure, an obscure language is not necessarily interesting. In many cases, being relatively well known is a benefit simply because it offers more exposure to new ideas. I have found languages such as Forth, Racket, and Smalltalk far more valuable primarily because they are sufficiently accessible to be practical learning tools.
btbytes 7y ago
I'm the author. You are right. I think the above are all "mainstream" enough for me. At the least, I've installed and played with them all at one time.
- soapdog 7y ago
  Hey, I like your list. Now, tell us, from that list, is there a favourite language? Some you'd pick up to write simple tools for your own personal usage...
  - btbytes 7y ago
    nim/zig/red. * I already use nim and I'm very productive in it. * Would like to use Zig for "system programming" when and if something like Nim (and D) are inadequate. * Red because its a REBOL and it can be a mind blowing experience to read some clever REBOL/Red code.
- nils-m-holm 7y ago
  Too mainstream? Then have a look at T3X (http://t3x.org/t3x http://t3x.org/t3x) or mLite (http://t3x.org/mlite http://t3x.org/mlite) or Klong (http://t3x.org/klong http://t3x.org/klong). :)
  - 6thaccount2 7y ago
    I've been meaning to check out Klong for ages and the accompanying book. Thanks for doing this work Niles!
- yoran 7y ago
  You know you're on Hacker News when a language like Prolog is considered to be too mainstream :-). Great list, thanks!
- neilv 7y ago
  Would you say that people interested in languages should first look at certain "mainstream" languages Scheme/Racket, Common Lisp, Haskell, OCaml, Smalltalk, and Prolog, before looking at less-mainstream ones?
  - 6thaccount2 7y ago
    Lol nope, not gatekeeping programming languages :) The above are all pretty cool though and each (as Larry Wall would put it) are the perfect examples of modernism. Each one takes a single idea to a fault. Lisp => lists, Haskell => functions, Scheme => lists and recursion, Prolog => logic, Smalltalk => objects, Forth => concatenative and extreme minimalism, and APL => arrays. Most post-modern languages combine many of the above in more practical and less elegant ways. Python is OO at heart, but can be written in a functional style, and can do array programming with Numpy. So there is value (I think) to looking back at those languages from an educational point of view even if you're not using them in your personal projects or production. The more novel ones that the author posted are probably also educational in their own way, but probably don't ram just one idea home. I think we're mostly past that now as Wall has stated. Perl6 might not run very fast or be very mature or popular, but it is a very interesting language that does a good job showing the post modern system. It pulls what the language designers felt were the best features from all the past languages (Perl5, Python, APL, Haskell, Smalltalk, Awk, Java, C#...etc).
Izkata 7y ago
> Maybe most of the above are too mainstream for the list. I'd agree with Haskell and Prolog, and probably people could guess based on the "Lisp" part of PicoLisp, but having experience with Rebol - no one I've mentioned it to has heard of it. I don't think it's mainstream at all.
cryptonector 7y ago
And K, Icon, and others.

tyingq 7y ago

Kotlin and Dart also. Maybe the same reason? There isn't a preamble with the reasoning...they just jump right into the list.

amimetic 7y ago
Dart is designed to be uninteresting! But certainly Kotlin deserves a mention if Elixir makes it onto the list.

dleslie 7y ago

Carp, Scheme, Elm

yakshaving_jgt 7y ago

I was actually rather pleased that Haskell is omitted. It suggests that Haskell is now mainstream.

II2II 7y ago

> Maybe most of the above are too mainstream for the list. While an interesting language may be obscure, an obscure language is not necessarily interesting. In many cases, being relatively well known is a benefit simply because it offers more exposure to new ideas. I have found languages such as Forth, Racket, and Smalltalk far more valuable primarily because they are sufficiently accessible to be practical learning tools.

btbytes 7y ago

I'm the author. You are right. I think the above are all "mainstream" enough for me. At the least, I've installed and played with them all at one time.

soapdog 7y ago
Hey, I like your list. Now, tell us, from that list, is there a favourite language? Some you'd pick up to write simple tools for your own personal usage...
- btbytes 7y ago
  nim/zig/red. * I already use nim and I'm very productive in it. * Would like to use Zig for "system programming" when and if something like Nim (and D) are inadequate. * Red because its a REBOL and it can be a mind blowing experience to read some clever REBOL/Red code.
nils-m-holm 7y ago
Too mainstream? Then have a look at T3X (http://t3x.org/t3x http://t3x.org/t3x) or mLite (http://t3x.org/mlite http://t3x.org/mlite) or Klong (http://t3x.org/klong http://t3x.org/klong). :)
- 6thaccount2 7y ago
  I've been meaning to check out Klong for ages and the accompanying book. Thanks for doing this work Niles!
yoran 7y ago
You know you're on Hacker News when a language like Prolog is considered to be too mainstream :-). Great list, thanks!
neilv 7y ago
Would you say that people interested in languages should first look at certain "mainstream" languages Scheme/Racket, Common Lisp, Haskell, OCaml, Smalltalk, and Prolog, before looking at less-mainstream ones?
- 6thaccount2 7y ago
  Lol nope, not gatekeeping programming languages :) The above are all pretty cool though and each (as Larry Wall would put it) are the perfect examples of modernism. Each one takes a single idea to a fault. Lisp => lists, Haskell => functions, Scheme => lists and recursion, Prolog => logic, Smalltalk => objects, Forth => concatenative and extreme minimalism, and APL => arrays. Most post-modern languages combine many of the above in more practical and less elegant ways. Python is OO at heart, but can be written in a functional style, and can do array programming with Numpy. So there is value (I think) to looking back at those languages from an educational point of view even if you're not using them in your personal projects or production. The more novel ones that the author posted are probably also educational in their own way, but probably don't ram just one idea home. I think we're mostly past that now as Wall has stated. Perl6 might not run very fast or be very mature or popular, but it is a very interesting language that does a good job showing the post modern system. It pulls what the language designers felt were the best features from all the past languages (Perl5, Python, APL, Haskell, Smalltalk, Awk, Java, C#...etc).

Izkata 7y ago

> Maybe most of the above are too mainstream for the list. I'd agree with Haskell and Prolog, and probably people could guess based on the "Lisp" part of PicoLisp, but having experience with Rebol - no one I've mentioned it to has heard of it. I don't think it's mainstream at all.

cryptonector 7y ago

And K, Icon, and others.