4 ms·

Ask HN: What new programming language(s) are you most excited about?

11 points by k2xl 3y ago

Curious which programming languages that have been invented over the past year or two that people here are most excited about and why.

taraharris 3y ago
cpp2, Herb Sutter's compatible replacement for C++.
- vram22 3y ago
  How is it different or better (, if compatible)?
brucethemoose2 3y ago
While not all "languages" persay, I am excited about the various ML compilation efforts: https://github.com/merrymercy/awesome-tensor-compilers https://github.com/merrymercy/awesome-tensor-compilers Modern ML training/inference is inefficient, and lacks any portability. These frameworks are how that changes... As random examples, TVM runs LLaMA on Vulkan faster than PyTorch CUDA, and AITemplate almost doubles the speed of Stable Diffusion. Triton somewhat speeds up PyTorch training in the few repos that use it now, and should help AMD hardware even more than Nvidia.
lavren1974 3y ago
Vlang, Odin lang, Zig lang
- Tozen 3y ago
  Good choices. Putting in a vote for Vlang, which just hit 0.4 this week.
  - vram22 3y ago
    Interesting. I had come across Vlang a year or so ago and had checked it out briefly, then forgot about it. Thanks to your comment, I just checked it again. Seems to have progressed a lot since my last visit. Going to try it out.
    - vram22 3y ago
      The syntax seems straightforward, although I only looked at the demo programs on the home page. The site might have a CSS issue though. Top list of links was truncated on the right, had to shrink the text. Using Chrome on Android.
troymc 3y ago
Mojo [1] Mojo is another approach to solving "the two-language problem," similar to what Julia is trying to do, but the code looks like Python. Mojo is being designed by Chris Lattner [2], who knows a thing or two about language & compiler design. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(programming_language) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lattner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lattner
- Tozen 3y ago
  Wow, didn't know Mojo already got a Wikipedia page. It doesn't even have any published releases on its GitHub yet. Talk about moving in the fast lane and being well connected.
rektide 3y ago
I'm exhausted by single-process programming languages. I think it's totally not worth our time to care at all about this problem any more. We need to figure out how to build systems more broadly. We're stealing useful energy pretending like such a small subproblem still has actual distinction & interest. There's a lot of different ways to make code. But at this point there's just so little evidence that languages engender interesting new capabilities. There's some flourishistic differences, but most code reads fairly the same, if you squint. Rust is by far one of the most interesting languages, and it's only interesting adds are... constraints. We need some new frontiers of possibility, not just constraint. Languages are not leading us to new potentials, these days.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  In particular, deployment via terraform and friends feels incredibly like living in the days before linkers were discovered.
- fuzztester 3y ago
  Good points. How about if we took a handful of the most advanced new (and even old) languages, and made them cohabit and have "kids"? Something great might result from that. ;-)
revskill 3y ago
Zig ! It has the balance between the simplicity of Golang, the explicity of control flow, the performance of C but with type.
nivertech 3y ago
Probably older than year or two, but still very interesting PLs: 1. Unison 2. Gleam 3. Futhark (and similar GPU compute PLs) 4. Lisp-s with static typing / algebraic type systems
aristofun 3y ago
Typescript is the best thing that happened to programming languages since ruby. If only it could run outside of js realm - there is almost nothing more to desire from a general purpose application language (vs system/lowlevel ones).
- vram22 3y ago
  Why do you think it is that good?
  - aristofun 3y ago
    Because it is dynamic, yet act static when you need to.
ezedv 3y ago
I'm really excited about Rust! Its focus on memory safety and performance makes it a promising language for systems programming. Additionally, Python's popularity continues to grow, thanks to its simplicity and versatility for various domains.
oftenwrong 3y ago
https://www.unison-lang.org/ https://www.unison-lang.org/ I am excited about the problems that go away under the unison model. For example: - no dependency version resolution - fully incremental builds - no merge conflicts - fully incremental distribution - easy, fine-grained tree shaking - no code formatting (except for display in your editor)

11 points by k2xl 3y ago

Curious which programming languages that have been invented over the past year or two that people here are most excited about and why.

taraharris 3y ago

cpp2, Herb Sutter's compatible replacement for C++.

vram22 3y ago
How is it different or better (, if compatible)?

brucethemoose2 3y ago

While not all "languages" persay, I am excited about the various ML compilation efforts: https://github.com/merrymercy/awesome-tensor-compilers https://github.com/merrymercy/awesome-tensor-compilers Modern ML training/inference is inefficient, and lacks any portability. These frameworks are how that changes... As random examples, TVM runs LLaMA on Vulkan faster than PyTorch CUDA, and AITemplate almost doubles the speed of Stable Diffusion. Triton somewhat speeds up PyTorch training in the few repos that use it now, and should help AMD hardware even more than Nvidia.

lavren1974 3y ago

Vlang, Odin lang, Zig lang

Tozen 3y ago
Good choices. Putting in a vote for Vlang, which just hit 0.4 this week.
- vram22 3y ago
  Interesting. I had come across Vlang a year or so ago and had checked it out briefly, then forgot about it. Thanks to your comment, I just checked it again. Seems to have progressed a lot since my last visit. Going to try it out.
  - vram22 3y ago
    The syntax seems straightforward, although I only looked at the demo programs on the home page. The site might have a CSS issue though. Top list of links was truncated on the right, had to shrink the text. Using Chrome on Android.

troymc 3y ago

Mojo [1] Mojo is another approach to solving "the two-language problem," similar to what Julia is trying to do, but the code looks like Python. Mojo is being designed by Chris Lattner [2], who knows a thing or two about language & compiler design. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(programming_language) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lattner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lattner

Tozen 3y ago
Wow, didn't know Mojo already got a Wikipedia page. It doesn't even have any published releases on its GitHub yet. Talk about moving in the fast lane and being well connected.

rektide 3y ago

I'm exhausted by single-process programming languages. I think it's totally not worth our time to care at all about this problem any more. We need to figure out how to build systems more broadly. We're stealing useful energy pretending like such a small subproblem still has actual distinction & interest. There's a lot of different ways to make code. But at this point there's just so little evidence that languages engender interesting new capabilities. There's some flourishistic differences, but most code reads fairly the same, if you squint. Rust is by far one of the most interesting languages, and it's only interesting adds are... constraints. We need some new frontiers of possibility, not just constraint. Languages are not leading us to new potentials, these days.

082349872349872 3y ago
In particular, deployment via terraform and friends feels incredibly like living in the days before linkers were discovered.
fuzztester 3y ago
Good points. How about if we took a handful of the most advanced new (and even old) languages, and made them cohabit and have "kids"? Something great might result from that. ;-)

revskill 3y ago

Zig ! It has the balance between the simplicity of Golang, the explicity of control flow, the performance of C but with type.

nivertech 3y ago

Probably older than year or two, but still very interesting PLs: 1. Unison 2. Gleam 3. Futhark (and similar GPU compute PLs) 4. Lisp-s with static typing / algebraic type systems

aristofun 3y ago

Typescript is the best thing that happened to programming languages since ruby. If only it could run outside of js realm - there is almost nothing more to desire from a general purpose application language (vs system/lowlevel ones).

vram22 3y ago
Why do you think it is that good?
- aristofun 3y ago
  Because it is dynamic, yet act static when you need to.

ezedv 3y ago

I'm really excited about Rust! Its focus on memory safety and performance makes it a promising language for systems programming. Additionally, Python's popularity continues to grow, thanks to its simplicity and versatility for various domains.

oftenwrong 3y ago

https://www.unison-lang.org/ https://www.unison-lang.org/ I am excited about the problems that go away under the unison model. For example: - no dependency version resolution - fully incremental builds - no merge conflicts - fully incremental distribution - easy, fine-grained tree shaking - no code formatting (except for display in your editor)