Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#1

Post by enkiv2 » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 3:53 PM UTC

I'm specifically gearing this toward obscure languages -- in other words, not PHP and Java, because although nearly everybody hates those languages, nearly everybody knows them too. Languages with bad reputations that are no longer common count, though (like COBOL and FORTRAN).

Mine's prolog.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#2

Post by aqsis » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 3:57 PM UTC

Smalltalk - the granddaddy of all object oriented languages, and still the 'most' object oriented IMHO. And the only language that I know of that is typically implemented in a system that offers image based persistence, which is very cool (again IMHO).

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#3

Post by pinewurst » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:09 PM UTC

Tcl

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#4

Post by lgunsch » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:13 PM UTC

I really like Rust.

I suppose its debatable whether it's unpopular, as Rust focused articles on HN tend to be up-voted. But, it does seem "unpopular" compared to Go, and other languages with a much larger following.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#5

Post by zck » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:18 PM UTC

Arc - the Lisp that runs Hacker News.

It's a really cleanly-designed language. While it has rough edges, the problems with it seem to be things it doesn't do, not things it does for confusing reasons.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#6

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:18 PM UTC

Perl, unless you think it's still too popular to count. If not Perl, maybe 68000 assembler.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#7

Post by enkiv2 » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:33 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #6

Perl, unless you think it's still too popular to count. If not Perl, maybe 68000 assembler.

I wasn't sure whether to count perl. Ten years ago, I'd say perl fell into the same category as PHP and Java -- a large user base, many of whom dislike it. But, it's transitioning toward being a language of the past.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#8

Post by yen223 » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:43 PM UTC

I will always have a soft spot for ActionScript - it's what got me into programming in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#9

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:46 PM UTC

pinewurst wrote: post #3

Tcl

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is your favourite unpopular programming language?

#10

Post by jophde » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 4:46 PM UTC

If popularity is not measured in the sheer amount of code written or programmers, then I would have to say Java. It has to be the most publicly shamed language. It's not really the language itself I enjoy. It's IntelliJ. Seriously, IntelliJ makes writing Java code insanely fast.