Ask HN: Which alternative to Python for personnal use would you recommend?

If you're looking for a high-level scripting language for small projects that you keep to yourself, Ruby is the obvious alternative to Python. Lua not so much - it's fine when embedded but doesn't have the ecosystem for standalone use.

However, if you want to make programs for others to download and use, I'd recommend a language that can be compiled into easily-distributable binaries. As long as the overhead of a garbage collector is acceptable, Go is the clear favourite here.

This list is not meant to say "this is the best language for this", but rather, "you'll have an interesting learning experience with this":

- web backend => ruby (with RoR)

- web frontend => JS

- network => go

- gui => dart

- perf sensitive => rust

- mac os only => swift

- windows only => F#

- cli scripting => nim

- embed => zig

- new perspective on programming => lisp

- want to experience clean theoretical concept => haskell

- need super reliable service => erlang

- lots of data processing => julia

- lots of number exploration => j

- video game => C# (with unity)

And I say this as someone who would likely use Python for 80% of those.

You will probably like .NET's CLI tooling after Python:

    brew install dotnet-sdk
    # or
    sudo dnf/apt install dotnet-sdk-8.0
    dotnet new web
    dotnet run
    curl localhost:5050

C# will give you, in some ways, Python-esque experience if you make many one-off programs as you can simply write Main as python script but with 10-50x performance. You can also go very low-level with C syntax with unsafe, or take a middle ground with performance-oriented APIs - it's a language closer to the metal than Kotlin or Go.

To build a native binary, just make a template with --aot arg. like dotnet new console --aot or do dotnet publish -p:PublishAot=true -o. {folder} (if template doesnt have it). .NET 8 build toolchain sometimes not the fastest (it's seconds but still) but .NET 9 improves upon that quite a bit.

Great for back-end, gamedev, crossplat GUI apps, low-level data-crunching with SIMD and high-level data crunching with Parallel and Task APIs, all kinds of background daemons.

Recently taught myself Python and now I just love it. Sorry you had a bad encounter with it.

I authored this site to help with this exact question:

https://cdaringe.github.io/programming-language-selector/

Try it out, give me (friendly) feedback!

Rust. Adequate for fun little projects on the side; I find the extra setup time pays itself off in bug prevention and diagnosis quickly, even on small projects. I feel confident my Rust code will have few runtime errors, mutations are predictable etc, while I know my Python code is a minefield, even with precautions like typing. Overall reasons I prefer Rust as a default over Python for most projects:

  - Better (best IMO) official tools
  - Catch many error types at compile time
  - Predictable mutation/pass-by-value vs ref
  - No speed limits
  - Easy to distribute (compared to Python)

All the downsides you've heard about rust are probably true. But when you weigh it as a whole and look at the downsides of other tools, IMO rust rises to the top for many uses.

Kotlin is IMO kind of a mess; too many Javas complications. I may be biased by only having used it for Android.

Important caveat: You mentioned you focus on backends. I can't recommend rust for that due to the immature ecosystem; if you are looking for something like Flask, it is fine. If you want a Django/Rails/Laravel analog, there is nothing that exists on that tier. I recommended it because you're looking for something more general.

Python has lots of libraries, and is known as the 'second best language for everything' so suck it up and learn a bit to complement your PHP. You don't need to learn it comprehensively- just a bit. (Alternatives to python are c# or Java).

Then I woudl say invest the time to learn Rust, as a long term strategy.

I do almost everything in Typescript these days. Is it the perfect language? No. Are there libraries for everything? Yes. Is it easy to run? Yes.

The bonus is that I'm using Typescript for front-end development anyway, so using TypeScript for my backend and scripts just simplifies everything I do into one language.

Racket and Clojure are, in my opinion, well-designed, pragmatic languages that get to the point quickly and elegantly.

Clojure is a great opinionated functional language with a healthy ecosystem and a real job market. I now solve Advent of Code-style puzzles mainly in Clojure. Its only significant drawback, which is also its biggest feature, is the JVM. While it gives you interop with Java's ecosystem and lets you benifit from one of the fastest GC runtimes, it can leak its quirks into your program.

If interpreter start-up times are a concern, Babashka is an alternative Clojure interpreter based on GraalVM, with a startup time of about 30ms, making it perfect for UNIX scripting with a real programming language. For browser or Node dev, ClojureScript is an official dialect with a few minimal compromises given its runtime.

It also includes many useful additions like Actor concurrency model, transducers, multimethods, records, and EDN (Extendible Data Notation).

The only real objection is that Clojure isn't quite a Lisp, deviating from the definition in key ways, such as not using cons cells. However, this is not a concern outside an educational context.

Racket is essentially a modern Scheme dialect, adding many of its own niceties while not strictly following RnRS standards. It has an excellent contract typing system, #lang feature that allows you to define your own DSLs, tools for lazy and reactive programming, and a batteries-included standard library with plotting, GUI, statistics, and more, all while still being a true Scheme, which igves you other neat features like numerical tower, TCO, first class continuations, and with #lang and other interop tools, the ability to reuse run most normal Scheme code. Fun fact: HackerNews is written in Arc, a Lisp dialect, now implemented as within Racket.

Both languages have uniquely excellent documentation, use the regular and flexible syntax of S-expressions, and possess powerful macro systems. Both are equally useful and fun tools.

This is hackernews, common lisp is the standard suggestion for personal projects. Especially if you found the debugging experience in Python lacking. It's not on your list, but definitely worth taking a look.

You didn't say that isn't PHP, so can we explore that further? I write a lot of my own little php shell scripts to do things. I use laravel zero for a framework of related tools. I wrote a cli RAG app for LLMs using it. You might look into TUIs people are coming out with like from Charm.sh, written in Go.

Ruby is the closest match from Python and PHP. Have you considered JavaScript too?

rust is good , if your want to release your work

I hope python have tools like cargo to release binary in one command

Elixir is really fun. It hits the same spot for me as Ruby does for many others, bringing joy when writing it.

Go Lang. Look no further :)

I’d say give python another chance. What happened exactly?

V lang