I Can Read C++ and Java But I Can’t Read Smalltalk (2000) [pdf]

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • julia

    The Julia Programming Language

  • node

    Node.js JavaScript runtime ✨🐢🚀✨

  • On Microsoft Github, in a repository such as https://github.com/nodejs/node press `.` (the full stop key) and it will take you away to github.dev, load Microsoft's VS Code in-browser to view and edit code with VS Code plugins and highlighting.

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  • pharo

    The Sources for Pharo (by carolahp)

  • I also disagree with your assessment. Pascal has greater readability in comparison to C, so it's "weirdness" is in the sense that it's more verbose. Arguably, the inherent problem of C family languages is their terseness tends to make them more cryptic and symbolic. But because of their popularity, many have become used to the eccentricities.

    Often those who learned C family languages first (C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript...), can feel there is "something wrong" when viewing the syntax and structures of other languages. When everybody only wears dark blue or black, somebody wearing purple or beige could be considered "weird".

    The creator of Ruby, Matsumoto, was a C++ programmer. It appears his intention was to make the language a bit more verbose, as is Pascal and BASIC, to increase ease of use and readability more than exists in C++. A person who used Ruby, would probably find reading and adjusting to Pascal or Lua much easier to do.

    Smalltalk gets a bit "weird", because of how they do OO. The structure and syntax used reflects a different way of thinking. Saying that Smalltalk "died", seems to be part of this odd labeling for any language not in the top 10. Are Rust, Kotlin, or Go dead because they never were nor are in the top 10? Be Smalltalk was never that tremendously popular to begin with, but it certainly didn't die. Go check out Pharo (https://pharo.org/).

  • v

    Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software. Compiles itself in <1s with zero library dependencies. Supports automatic C => V translation. https://vlang.io

  • The problem is that there are so many new languages that it's hard for any of them to gain enough momentum to encourage enough programmers or businesses to learn or even look at them. Not to mention that various top 10 languages are supported by huge companies that may rather snuff out or at least throw shade on up and coming languages that threaten their interests.

    The development pace of many of the new languages is relatively slow, despite having some great ideas, syntax, or features. Which means years before they have a large enough ecosystem and libraries, to even come near to mounting a challenge to the more established languages.

    For instance, another new one out there that I like is VLang (https://github.com/vlang/v). Like Red, it needs to find a sweet spot that will propel it to greater usage and recognition. Partly that can be cross-compiling and cross-platform application development. Also, strong emphasis on mobile development for both Android and iOS would help, but Apple makes their part of it difficult. To stand out, it means having easy to create UIs, their own IDEs (to maximize language features), etc... Just being on Visual Studio Code, with a hundred other languages, makes it hard to get noticed.

    Compare Red with established heavyweights like C#, Python, JavaScript, or even contenders like Delphi/Object Pascal. Not so easy to pull attention away from those languages, unless something very compelling can be shown or proven.

  • ren-c

    Library for embedding a Rebol interpreter into C codebases

  • There’s a few more living derivatives of the OG Rebol; the second of these also has a list of other derivatives and relatives:

    https://github.com/metaeducation/ren-c

    https://github.com/Oldes/Rebol3

  • Rebol3

    Source code for the Rebol [R3] interpreter

  • There’s a few more living derivatives of the OG Rebol; the second of these also has a list of other derivatives and relatives:

    https://github.com/metaeducation/ren-c

    https://github.com/Oldes/Rebol3

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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