Ask HN: Suggest me a new programming language with small user community to learn

7 pointsgrepgeek6y ago13 comments

I want to learn a very new programming language. It should not be too popular. It should not have a large user community. It should be relatively new compared to Go, JavaScript, etc.

My intention in learning behind a language like this is to see if I can contribute run-of-the-mill libraries to this language's ecosystem. If it is new and not so popular yet, there is a good chance its ecosystem would be lacking where I can contribute my time and effort to improve it.

13 comments

amirouche6y ago

Scheme is big and small at the same time. It is old, but the last report on the language was released a couple of years back and it is still growing. There is still many areas that needs some love.

Checkout http://scheme-lang.com/

elderK6y ago

You beat me to it!

I'd recommend checking out Chicken Scheme. Not only is it a kick-butt implementation but its community, #chicken on Freenode, is truly fantastic.

Give it a whirl :)

siriniok6y ago

I'd try Racket (Scheme family) or ReasonML.

em-bee6y ago

there are plenty of older but less popular languages that could use some help to improve the ecosystem.

pharo smalltalk for example. (i can give you a list of things i'd like to have there right now.)

pike is a nice language with a small community. plenty of room for interesting things to add.

red-lang is another one that could use some help.

bonus: if you pick that up any of these three i'll offer to mentor you :-)

shpx6y ago

https://www.idris-lang.org the book is great.

https://urbit.org/docs/learn/hoon/ has a small, welcoming community. It's pretty out there though.

There's also nim (fast Python) and Crystal (fast Ruby).

throwaway88796y ago

I've been meaning to check out urbit thoroughly for a while but they seem to have gone overboard with the esoteric terminology, at least for me personally. I was put off by the naming schemes in the docs last I looked at them about a year ago. I suppose I'll have another look again. Maybe they grow on you once you are familiar with them.

brianush16y ago

Odin[0] is very new and has a pretty small community, but it's promising and very well thought-out.

[0]: https://github.com/odin-lang/Odin

hazz996y ago

I'd recommend Dart. It's a great language but the ecosystem was severely lacking when I lasted used it.

An additional benefit is that it's super easy to contribute to the Flutter codebase!

codegladiator6y ago

What do you consider as "run-of-the-mill" libraries ? like data-structures/algos ? or say something like a database connector / http router ?

dom966y ago

Nim sounds like a perfect opportunity for you :)

throwaway88796y ago

Zig is very cool. Not sure whether it has a community yet. I liked the authors talks and livestreams on YouTube.

_proofs6y ago

Lua!

jazoom6y ago

Lua is 26 years old. The OP said younger than Go. Go is 9 years old.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

13 comments

amirouche6y ago

Scheme is big and small at the same time. It is old, but the last report on the language was released a couple of years back and it is still growing. There is still many areas that needs some love.

Checkout http://scheme-lang.com/

elderK6y ago

You beat me to it!

I'd recommend checking out Chicken Scheme. Not only is it a kick-butt implementation but its community, #chicken on Freenode, is truly fantastic.

Give it a whirl :)

siriniok6y ago

I'd try Racket (Scheme family) or ReasonML.

em-bee6y ago

there are plenty of older but less popular languages that could use some help to improve the ecosystem.

pharo smalltalk for example. (i can give you a list of things i'd like to have there right now.)

pike is a nice language with a small community. plenty of room for interesting things to add.

red-lang is another one that could use some help.

bonus: if you pick that up any of these three i'll offer to mentor you :-)

shpx6y ago

https://www.idris-lang.org the book is great.

https://urbit.org/docs/learn/hoon/ has a small, welcoming community. It's pretty out there though.

There's also nim (fast Python) and Crystal (fast Ruby).

throwaway88796y ago

brianush16y ago

Odin[0] is very new and has a pretty small community, but it's promising and very well thought-out.

[0]: https://github.com/odin-lang/Odin

hazz996y ago

I'd recommend Dart. It's a great language but the ecosystem was severely lacking when I lasted used it.

An additional benefit is that it's super easy to contribute to the Flutter codebase!

codegladiator6y ago

What do you consider as "run-of-the-mill" libraries ? like data-structures/algos ? or say something like a database connector / http router ?

dom966y ago

Nim sounds like a perfect opportunity for you :)

throwaway88796y ago

Zig is very cool. Not sure whether it has a community yet. I liked the authors talks and livestreams on YouTube.

_proofs6y ago

Lua!

jazoom6y ago

Lua is 26 years old. The OP said younger than Go. Go is 9 years old.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse