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I like Nim. Quickest possible description - it sits between Go and Rust. If you find Go boring or missing features, but Rust has too steep a learning curve -

I like Nim. Quickest possible description - it sits between Go and Rust. If you find Go boring or missing features, but Rust has too steep a learning curve - Nim. I found it strangely intuitive to get going with - easier than Go. With a smaller community still, there's plenty of room to contribute too.

vips7L 6y ago
In my experience every language sits between Go and Rust, apart from C++.
- Cyph0n 6y ago
  No, I would say that most languages sit above Go - i.e., most languages are higher-level and have lower performance (in the general case) than Go.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    That seems to capture the essence of Nim. The main goal appears to be to "seem high level" but, compile to C in way that makes it low level when you want it to be. Like the optional garbage collection, pretty simple ffi, etc. They seem to be pitching a middle ground.
  - cb321 6y ago
    Nim almost always produces faster running executables than Go in my experience, but is also higher level/more featureful. It also compiles very quickly if you use the TinyCC/tcc backend C compiler.
    - Cyph0n 6y ago
      I never said anything about Nim. My reply was saying this: [ Most languages ] - [ Go ] - [ Some languages ] - [ Rust ] - [ Way fewer languages ] In the above, languages are lower-level and higher performance (in general) as you move to the right.
- beagle3 6y ago
  Python is to on the other side of Go. And C++ isn't alone: None of Lisp, APL, Forth or Prolog, to name a few, sit anywhere near the Go<->Rust spectrum.
  - elcritch 6y ago
    Forth is more like the raw VM that runs your favorite interpreted high level language. Lisp is the AST that powers your favorite high level language or low level language. ;-)
- nepeckman 6y ago
  I think the significant thing about putting Nim on the Go/Rust spectrum is that all 3 languages are statically typed languages, that advocate performance and compile to a single binary. So there is more to gain from comparing the 3, than say comparing Go and Rust to Ruby.
untog 6y ago
I can second this. I was planning on making a library that wraps a few C libraries with seamless async and wanted a language that would work well in that context. Tried out Rust and really struggled to get something going, switched to Nim and had something up and running within minutes. So much easier. But as my work continued I ran into other roadblocks: bad documentation, small community. I went back to Rust, stuck with it, and now I'm very happy using Rust. But if you're looking for something low-level that you can pick up super-quickly, Nim is awesome. And the executables are crazy small, even compared to Rust.

vips7L 6y ago

In my experience every language sits between Go and Rust, apart from C++.

Cyph0n 6y ago
No, I would say that most languages sit above Go - i.e., most languages are higher-level and have lower performance (in the general case) than Go.
- tyingq 6y ago
  That seems to capture the essence of Nim. The main goal appears to be to "seem high level" but, compile to C in way that makes it low level when you want it to be. Like the optional garbage collection, pretty simple ffi, etc. They seem to be pitching a middle ground.
- cb321 6y ago
  Nim almost always produces faster running executables than Go in my experience, but is also higher level/more featureful. It also compiles very quickly if you use the TinyCC/tcc backend C compiler.
  - Cyph0n 6y ago
    I never said anything about Nim. My reply was saying this: [ Most languages ] - [ Go ] - [ Some languages ] - [ Rust ] - [ Way fewer languages ] In the above, languages are lower-level and higher performance (in general) as you move to the right.
beagle3 6y ago
Python is to on the other side of Go. And C++ isn't alone: None of Lisp, APL, Forth or Prolog, to name a few, sit anywhere near the Go<->Rust spectrum.
- elcritch 6y ago
  Forth is more like the raw VM that runs your favorite interpreted high level language. Lisp is the AST that powers your favorite high level language or low level language. ;-)
nepeckman 6y ago
I think the significant thing about putting Nim on the Go/Rust spectrum is that all 3 languages are statically typed languages, that advocate performance and compile to a single binary. So there is more to gain from comparing the 3, than say comparing Go and Rust to Ruby.

untog 6y ago

I can second this. I was planning on making a library that wraps a few C libraries with seamless async and wanted a language that would work well in that context. Tried out Rust and really struggled to get something going, switched to Nim and had something up and running within minutes. So much easier. But as my work continued I ran into other roadblocks: bad documentation, small community. I went back to Rust, stuck with it, and now I'm very happy using Rust. But if you're looking for something low-level that you can pick up super-quickly, Nim is awesome. And the executables are crazy small, even compared to Rust.