5 ms·

Nimrod: The Return of Pascal

86 points by p0nce 13y ago

ret 13y ago
Looks like Algol68 with some OOP.
- coolsunglasses 13y ago
  Looks like Golang but cleaned up and with generics added in. Maybe it's a bird, maybe it's a plane, maybe it's Superman.
- pekk 13y ago
  In other words, Python
amarsahinovic 13y ago
A recent discussion which includes Nimrod benchmark, for those who are interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263173 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263173
mojuba 13y ago
Simple and great idea that's been in my mind for at least a decade now (seriously): just give us Pascal sets and ranges with Python-like super-minimalist syntax and all the other sugar and fructose of modern languages. And, if you can, some sort of unification of functions and classes, JavaScript-style. Nimrod is quite close, though probably not exactly there (yet). Anyway, there are two kinds of programmers: those who build compilers and those who start writing ones but never finish.
saejox 13y ago
Possibly the best compile to C language. Easy to setup, fast, feature rich, works nice with C and best part: configurable GC. One thing i don't like tho: Case insensitivity. I write many in many languages, all but Nimrod are case sensitive. Lot's of 'already defined' errors. There is nice discussion about it here: https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/issues/521 https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/issues/521
- dom96 13y ago
  In my experience case insensitivity is very rarely a problem. It's convenient once you get used to it. > Lot's of 'already defined' errors. That's false, or at least an exaggeration.
- jk4930 13y ago
  Ada (Pascal-inspired) was designed to be a language that's safe against (mediocre) programmers. And it's case-insensitive. Note that Ada is especially made for reliable systems and they really look for error sources. Case sensitivity didn't show up as a problem, so they didn't have to change it in any later version (Ada 2012 now).
- cafard 13y ago
  I'm not sure that Thompson and Ritchie really did the world a favor with case-sensitive identifiers. I write a fair bit of PL/SQL, and don't mind the narrower range.
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
Pascal was (is?) a great language, never had trouble hacking and figuring out Pascal/Delphi code, even code clearly written by below-average programmers. I don't think many languages pass this litmus test. Also interesting is looking at old Pascal code and seeing how it stood the test of time. I had a lot of fun reading the Photoshop v1 source [1] [1] http://computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/ http://computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code...
nnq 13y ago
How come nobody comments about this feature of Nimrod: > a powerful (AST based, hygienic) macro system ...and I can't find any easy to digest example of it? I know, macros are "evil" and shouldn't be overused and this is not Lisp and all, but it actually seems like a potential killer feature for a language targeting the C/Rust/Go niche.
- lobster_johnson 13y ago
  Easy enough if you go to the Nimrod site and look at the documentation: http://nimrod-code.org/tut2.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/tut2.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/manual.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/manual.html#macros Note that Nimrod also has templates, which also uses AST-based macro expansion.
- kibwen 13y ago
  Hygienic AST-based macros are starting to surface in quite a few non-sexpr languages. Rust has them, and IIRC Elixir does too. It's an exciting trend.
reirob 13y ago
I like the syntax, maybe because my first productive language was Pascal. Does Nimrod support Unicode?
- dom96 13y ago
  Yes, it does. In strings and for var/proc names.
stewbrew 13y ago
Looks like a nice language. The warning of "Caution: This section is already outdated! XXX" in the language manual makes me wonder though whether it's ready to use.
mkr-hn 13y ago
I used to frequent a bookstore whose owner loved Pascal. He didn't like it when people pronounced it the way it looks.

86 points by p0nce 13y ago

ret 13y ago

Looks like Algol68 with some OOP.

coolsunglasses 13y ago
Looks like Golang but cleaned up and with generics added in. Maybe it's a bird, maybe it's a plane, maybe it's Superman.
pekk 13y ago
In other words, Python

amarsahinovic 13y ago

A recent discussion which includes Nimrod benchmark, for those who are interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263173 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263173

mojuba 13y ago

Simple and great idea that's been in my mind for at least a decade now (seriously): just give us Pascal sets and ranges with Python-like super-minimalist syntax and all the other sugar and fructose of modern languages. And, if you can, some sort of unification of functions and classes, JavaScript-style. Nimrod is quite close, though probably not exactly there (yet). Anyway, there are two kinds of programmers: those who build compilers and those who start writing ones but never finish.

saejox 13y ago

Possibly the best compile to C language. Easy to setup, fast, feature rich, works nice with C and best part: configurable GC. One thing i don't like tho: Case insensitivity. I write many in many languages, all but Nimrod are case sensitive. Lot's of 'already defined' errors. There is nice discussion about it here: https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/issues/521 https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/issues/521

dom96 13y ago
In my experience case insensitivity is very rarely a problem. It's convenient once you get used to it. > Lot's of 'already defined' errors. That's false, or at least an exaggeration.
jk4930 13y ago
Ada (Pascal-inspired) was designed to be a language that's safe against (mediocre) programmers. And it's case-insensitive. Note that Ada is especially made for reliable systems and they really look for error sources. Case sensitivity didn't show up as a problem, so they didn't have to change it in any later version (Ada 2012 now).
cafard 13y ago
I'm not sure that Thompson and Ritchie really did the world a favor with case-sensitive identifiers. I write a fair bit of PL/SQL, and don't mind the narrower range.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago

Pascal was (is?) a great language, never had trouble hacking and figuring out Pascal/Delphi code, even code clearly written by below-average programmers. I don't think many languages pass this litmus test. Also interesting is looking at old Pascal code and seeing how it stood the test of time. I had a lot of fun reading the Photoshop v1 source [1] [1] http://computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/ http://computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code...

nnq 13y ago

How come nobody comments about this feature of Nimrod: > a powerful (AST based, hygienic) macro system ...and I can't find any easy to digest example of it? I know, macros are "evil" and shouldn't be overused and this is not Lisp and all, but it actually seems like a potential killer feature for a language targeting the C/Rust/Go niche.

lobster_johnson 13y ago
Easy enough if you go to the Nimrod site and look at the documentation: http://nimrod-code.org/tut2.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/tut2.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/manual.html#macros http://nimrod-code.org/manual.html#macros Note that Nimrod also has templates, which also uses AST-based macro expansion.
kibwen 13y ago
Hygienic AST-based macros are starting to surface in quite a few non-sexpr languages. Rust has them, and IIRC Elixir does too. It's an exciting trend.

reirob 13y ago

I like the syntax, maybe because my first productive language was Pascal. Does Nimrod support Unicode?

dom96 13y ago
Yes, it does. In strings and for var/proc names.

stewbrew 13y ago

Looks like a nice language. The warning of "Caution: This section is already outdated! XXX" in the language manual makes me wonder though whether it's ready to use.

mkr-hn 13y ago

I used to frequent a bookstore whose owner loved Pascal. He didn't like it when people pronounced it the way it looks.