Niche Programming Languages

Users recommend various niche and alternative programming languages such as Unison, Joy, Lucid, Factor, and concatenative languages as fitting examples or solutions to the ideas presented in the original post.

📉 Falling 0.5x Programming Languages
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Keywords

out.java II SectorLambda code.wax V8 USAGE jetbrains.com media.mit plforums.org SICP language languages programming path code lisp java lambda calculus programming languages implemented

Sample Comments

wazHFsRy Aug 27, 2019 View on HN

I think the Unison language goes exactly in that directionhttp://unisonweb.org/

haskellandchill Feb 19, 2021 View on HN

Have you seen Unison language? They are positioned as a solution to what you are describing.

carapace Apr 28, 2023 View on HN

Neat!Maybe check out the Joy programming language? It seems well-suited to this domain.

aidenn0 May 12, 2015 View on HN

Sounds a lot like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_(programming_language)

dang Jun 22, 2024 View on HN

Related:Show HN: Cognate – Stack oriented programming in English prose - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31312815 - May 2022 (6 comments)

gclaramunt Nov 5, 2015 View on HN

curious: what's the underlying computational model for the language? the untyped lambda calculus? universal turing machine ? Or there's something new?

AndyKluger Apr 22, 2025 View on HN

Do concatenative langs like Factor fit the bill?

carapace Jul 14, 2018 View on HN

A language called "Spiral" went by yesterday, that I think does a little bit of that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17519138

dqpb Mar 30, 2019 View on HN

Sounds like language oriented programming: https://resources.jetbrains.com/storage/products/mps/docs/La...

etherealG Feb 9, 2010 View on HN

wow, that's really interesting. thanks. do you know of any production level languages that feature this kind of approach?