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More interesting tidbits: > Language is type-safe and memory-safe. > nullc library can execute code on a VM or translate it to x86 code for fast execution. It

More interesting tidbits: > Language is type-safe and memory-safe. > nullc library can execute code on a VM or translate it to x86 code for fast execution. It can also translate nullc files into C source files. But sadly, although the project has been around for 11 years, development seems to have stalled since last year, at least going by GitHub activity.

ModernMech 5y ago
Work on long term projects like this tends to go in bursts. Stalled activity for a year isn’t unheard of. This project had a lot of activity in 2011, stalled the better part of a decade, and then had a burst of 1600+ commits last year. This is the mark of a project that has renewed interest from its author.
- spicybright 5y ago
  Not a great language to code anything not a toy in then.
  - ModernMech 5y ago
    Sure, but that's 99% of languages out there. If you are evaluating a language for a real project, it's best to stick to the top 50-100 languages on stack overflow. Out here in the wild west of programming languages though, questions like "can I use this for anything real" aren't really material. Of course you can't, and the irregularity of the developer is just one reason out of many. Nonetheless, people find themselves drawn to these languages because they can actually offer something those top 50-100 languages can't -- fresh takes on programming language design and philosophy. True, we may never build anything more than a toy in these smaller niche languages, but still we can bring the insights gained back to our development practices in those top 50 languages.
api 5y ago
Why is activity the measure of product quality? If I write something that works great and needs few updates is it inferior to something that’s broken and gets commits every day? This is just a terrible metric of software quality that became standard without anyone discussing why.
- adwn 5y ago
  Because programming languages are different from regular software: for a programming language to be useful, it needs an ecosystem of libraries, package management, and IDE support. It's not the 80s anymore, when everyone wrote their own libraries anyway, maybe shared them with friends or colleagues, and didn't expect anything beyond a small standard library. Today, a new language has a small window of a few years, after which it either achieves escape velocity, or re-enters the atmosphere and burns up. A new language which hasn't received major updates for two years, is effectively dead. It's a social phenomenon, not a technical one.
- karmakaze 5y ago
  I can make a guess why this might matter. For something that's not already widely used, we start with the premise that it is not finished in that it hasn't been exercised enough to know it is. With that a lack of activity indicates that edges are not being found and fixed. There could be an argument made that the way the software is developed and tested finds and fixes inconsistencies but that would have to be illustrated and not accepted as a given by statement alone.
- zdragnar 5y ago
  > without anyone discussing why Why does it need to be discussed? Not actively maintained says it is either "done" or abandoned. It is also a (weak) proxy for popularity, meaning if I do run into an issue an active repo means I am more likely to get help. A quick glance at the git repo shows that it has builds set up on travis that are failing, and an unanswered question in the issue tracker. Neither of these inspire confidence that it will "work great"
- aaron_m04 5y ago
  I think the assumption is that all software developers produce output of equal quality.

ModernMech 5y ago

Work on long term projects like this tends to go in bursts. Stalled activity for a year isn’t unheard of. This project had a lot of activity in 2011, stalled the better part of a decade, and then had a burst of 1600+ commits last year. This is the mark of a project that has renewed interest from its author.

spicybright 5y ago
Not a great language to code anything not a toy in then.
- ModernMech 5y ago
  Sure, but that's 99% of languages out there. If you are evaluating a language for a real project, it's best to stick to the top 50-100 languages on stack overflow. Out here in the wild west of programming languages though, questions like "can I use this for anything real" aren't really material. Of course you can't, and the irregularity of the developer is just one reason out of many. Nonetheless, people find themselves drawn to these languages because they can actually offer something those top 50-100 languages can't -- fresh takes on programming language design and philosophy. True, we may never build anything more than a toy in these smaller niche languages, but still we can bring the insights gained back to our development practices in those top 50 languages.

api 5y ago

Why is activity the measure of product quality? If I write something that works great and needs few updates is it inferior to something that’s broken and gets commits every day? This is just a terrible metric of software quality that became standard without anyone discussing why.

adwn 5y ago
Because programming languages are different from regular software: for a programming language to be useful, it needs an ecosystem of libraries, package management, and IDE support. It's not the 80s anymore, when everyone wrote their own libraries anyway, maybe shared them with friends or colleagues, and didn't expect anything beyond a small standard library. Today, a new language has a small window of a few years, after which it either achieves escape velocity, or re-enters the atmosphere and burns up. A new language which hasn't received major updates for two years, is effectively dead. It's a social phenomenon, not a technical one.
karmakaze 5y ago
I can make a guess why this might matter. For something that's not already widely used, we start with the premise that it is not finished in that it hasn't been exercised enough to know it is. With that a lack of activity indicates that edges are not being found and fixed. There could be an argument made that the way the software is developed and tested finds and fixes inconsistencies but that would have to be illustrated and not accepted as a given by statement alone.
zdragnar 5y ago
> without anyone discussing why Why does it need to be discussed? Not actively maintained says it is either "done" or abandoned. It is also a (weak) proxy for popularity, meaning if I do run into an issue an active repo means I am more likely to get help. A quick glance at the git repo shows that it has builds set up on travis that are failing, and an unanswered question in the issue tracker. Neither of these inspire confidence that it will "work great"
aaron_m04 5y ago
I think the assumption is that all software developers produce output of equal quality.