3 ms·

Functional Programming in hica

52 points by cladamski79 3mo ago

cladamski79 3mo ago
hica is a functional, expression-based programming language, everything is an expression and immutable by default. Its goal is to make programming very approachable for beginners (and veterans alike). You learn by doing small programs, then dive deeper on a thing you really want to build. This is a guide on functional programming which covers immutability, higher-order functions, pipelines, and more, all with runnable examples. If that is to theoretical there is https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-for-beginners/ https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-for-beginners/ that walks through functions, pattern matching, and lists by building real programs. Happy to answer questions about the design decisions, the implementation or how to get started.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- alfanick 3mo ago
  Any examples of bigger and practical projects written in hica?
  - cladamski79 3mo ago
    I recently posted about tbdflow-ui at https://cladam.github.io/2026/06/30/tbdflow-ui/ https://cladam.github.io/2026/06/30/tbdflow-ui/ There is also the HML spec and a library at https://github.com/cladam/hml https://github.com/cladam/hml
- smw 3mo ago
  Any concurrency / parallelism?
  - cladamski79 3mo ago
    [dead]
jdw64 3mo ago
It feels like C#, so it seems easy to learn. Looks fun.
blanched 3mo ago
Quick fyi that your website is “zoomed in” on mobile safari and a little difficult to use (Apologies if it’s just my device) I’ll take a closer look on my desktop later today, I love seeing new programming languages. Sounds interesting!
- tgv 3mo ago
  Same here. Needs one of those "standard" html headers, I think.
  - lioeters 3mo ago
    Hm, I checked the site and it does have one of these: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> Which is the standard. I wonder if something else is interfering with it.
    - deleted 3mo ago
      [deleted]
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  I took a look and added -webkit-text-size-adjust to please Safari, hope it helps. And thanks!
  - twhitmore 3mo ago
    Grid layout error in your CSS/ HTML, I think. You've assigned `grid-area: main` to the content but the parent grid doesn’t define "main" in its grid-template-areas; the browser creates an implicit grid row/column to satisfy the placement, and this ends up being below the defined areas. Thus requiring 1 page blank space to scroll down. You can investigate the `<div class="main-content">` in Dev Tools by toggling the 'grid-area' CSS attribute off; that fixes the display.
nyankosensei 3mo ago
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting, especially since it’s based on Koka, which I’ve been experimenting with and still trying to wrap my head around. It also reminds me a lot of Shen (https://shenlanguage.org/ https://shenlanguage.org/). I’ll definitely try this out. How do you pronounce the name?
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  I created a backronym of a longwinded name and I pronounce it as hi-ca, or perhaps hee-ca :) Shen is very interesting, I actually created a lisp in hica as a learning exercise, check it out at https://github.com/cladam/hica-lisp https://github.com/cladam/hica-lisp
esafak 3mo ago
Looks good. If it is not too early to ask, how fast are compile times and executables, and informative are the error messages?
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  [dead]
mogoh 3mo ago
Does this aims to be the python of functional programming languages?
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  That's roughly the positioning, yes. Approachable syntax, low ceremony, runs scripts directly. The difference is that the safety guarantees (no null, tracked effects, exhaustive matching) come for free rather than being opt-in via type checkers. I did a comparison to python which shows the differences, and where they are similar: https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-vs-python/ https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-vs-python/
xixixao 3mo ago
Looks very tasteful! Good job!

52 points by cladamski79 3mo ago

hica is a functional, expression-based programming language, everything is an expression and immutable by default. Its goal is to make programming very approachable for beginners (and veterans alike). You learn by doing small programs, then dive deeper on a thing you really want to build. This is a guide on functional programming which covers immutability, higher-order functions, pipelines, and more, all with runnable examples. If that is to theoretical there is https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-for-beginners/ https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-for-beginners/ that walks through functions, pattern matching, and lists by building real programs. Happy to answer questions about the design decisions, the implementation or how to get started.

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
alfanick 3mo ago
Any examples of bigger and practical projects written in hica?
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  I recently posted about tbdflow-ui at https://cladam.github.io/2026/06/30/tbdflow-ui/ https://cladam.github.io/2026/06/30/tbdflow-ui/ There is also the HML spec and a library at https://github.com/cladam/hml https://github.com/cladam/hml
smw 3mo ago
Any concurrency / parallelism?
- cladamski79 3mo ago
  [dead]

jdw64 3mo ago

It feels like C#, so it seems easy to learn. Looks fun.

blanched 3mo ago

Quick fyi that your website is “zoomed in” on mobile safari and a little difficult to use (Apologies if it’s just my device) I’ll take a closer look on my desktop later today, I love seeing new programming languages. Sounds interesting!

tgv 3mo ago
Same here. Needs one of those "standard" html headers, I think.
- lioeters 3mo ago
  Hm, I checked the site and it does have one of these: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> Which is the standard. I wonder if something else is interfering with it.
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
cladamski79 3mo ago
I took a look and added -webkit-text-size-adjust to please Safari, hope it helps. And thanks!
- twhitmore 3mo ago
  Grid layout error in your CSS/ HTML, I think. You've assigned `grid-area: main` to the content but the parent grid doesn’t define "main" in its grid-template-areas; the browser creates an implicit grid row/column to satisfy the placement, and this ends up being below the defined areas. Thus requiring 1 page blank space to scroll down. You can investigate the `<div class="main-content">` in Dev Tools by toggling the 'grid-area' CSS attribute off; that fixes the display.

nyankosensei 3mo ago

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting, especially since it’s based on Koka, which I’ve been experimenting with and still trying to wrap my head around. It also reminds me a lot of Shen (https://shenlanguage.org/ https://shenlanguage.org/). I’ll definitely try this out. How do you pronounce the name?

cladamski79 3mo ago
I created a backronym of a longwinded name and I pronounce it as hi-ca, or perhaps hee-ca :) Shen is very interesting, I actually created a lisp in hica as a learning exercise, check it out at https://github.com/cladam/hica-lisp https://github.com/cladam/hica-lisp

esafak 3mo ago

Looks good. If it is not too early to ask, how fast are compile times and executables, and informative are the error messages?

cladamski79 3mo ago
[dead]

mogoh 3mo ago

Does this aims to be the python of functional programming languages?

cladamski79 3mo ago
That's roughly the positioning, yes. Approachable syntax, low ceremony, runs scripts directly. The difference is that the safety guarantees (no null, tracked effects, exhaustive matching) come for free rather than being opt-in via type checkers. I did a comparison to python which shows the differences, and where they are similar: https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-vs-python/ https://www.hica.dev/docs/hica-vs-python/

xixixao 3mo ago

Looks very tasteful! Good job!