Forgotten Programming Languages

Discussions focus on obscure, underrated, or long-stagnant programming languages, their histories, reasons for lack of adoption, and occasional revivals or niche uses.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Programming Languages
2,194
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7857
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
6
2008
14
2009
31
2010
52
2011
56
2012
63
2013
82
2014
116
2015
124
2016
108
2017
152
2018
130
2019
144
2020
171
2021
176
2022
198
2023
189
2024
176
2025
199
2026
7

Keywords

e.g IMHO JIT JS code.kx index.php digitalmars.com SPARK YC HN language programming language programming languages lang project pl programming languages research production ready

Sample Comments

KingLancelot Jan 11, 2023 View on HN

9 years after the created this language they’re only now beginning to do this?

3rdAccount Jun 12, 2018 View on HN

I haven't seen this in ages, but was always sad it didn't pick up a little more steam. Neat project. I'd love to learn concatenative and array languages using it.

xyzal Nov 9, 2025 View on HN

I don't know about now but it soon may be :)An interesting project chose it as its lang: https://collapseos.org/

jheriko Sep 23, 2023 View on HN

i used it years ago. it solved nothing for me despite being cool. i've not seen any interesting developments in that direction.but then i still consider java, c#, go, rust, haskell pointess badly designed and built clusterfucks, so what do i know?

gnz11 Mar 4, 2025 View on HN

What are your thoughts on D? My experience is limited but seems like a very underrated language.

devX3 Feb 29, 2024 View on HN

Haven't heard from this language since 2016 where a coworker tried this out but then gave up on it.

Animats Nov 18, 2018 View on HN

SPARK, the language. Whatever happened to that?

register Jul 26, 2022 View on HN

I tinkered with it a little bit. It is surprisingly modern for a language built in the 80s. Unfortunately the development stalled. Would be worth of a new modern implementation.

tluyben2 Apr 14, 2019 View on HN

This language has been around for ages and does not get enough attention imho; it is a very fast Prolog like and it has been robust for a while now. But almost no one uses it unfortunately...

oaw-bct-ar-bamf Jun 29, 2019 View on HN

I am relatively new to a project that is being sold and used in the order of millions for approximately 25 to thirty years.It was refreshing to find out that one of the approximately 7 languages that contribute to the final executable that was abandoned in ~2007 has been revived and is now (2016ish) being maintained by EclipseThese kind of things make you realise that the Silicon Valley way of doing things is not the silver bullet.