Nim 1.6.2

#1

Post by kindaAnIdiot » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:29 AM UTC

Nim 1.6.2
nim-lang.org

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#2

Post by elcritch » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:43 AM UTC

Always great to see lots of bug fixes / improvements.

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#3

Post by posharma » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:44 AM UTC

Genuinely curious - why should I care about Nim? There are already a plethora of general purpose languages (both compiled and interpreted). Also, is anyone using Nim today? What's the adoption?

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#4

Post by echelon » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:50 AM UTC

posharma wrote: post #3

Genuinely curious - why should I care about Nim? There are already a plethora of general purpose languages (both compiled and interpreted). Also, is anyone using Nim today? What's the adoption?

Nim seems to be targeting the space between Python and Go, which is wide open for disruption. (Also touches at the edges of managed memory systems-y light languages like Java/C#.)

Python is a dynamically typed cowboy land and is painfully slow for many applications. People want types, speed, and fixes for decades of baggage, but they like Python ergonomics.

Go until recently lacked generics (it still doesn't have full generics), has bad error handling, and other weird features.

Rust and Swift also seem to be interested in this space. Rust can be heavy. Swift too Apple-centric.

Nim is doing a good job and is growing at a steady clip.

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#5

Post by sp33der89 » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:52 AM UTC

posharma wrote: post #3

Genuinely curious - why should I care about Nim? There are already a plethora of general purpose languages (both compiled and interpreted). Also, is anyone using Nim today? What's the adoption?

For me it's the intersection of performance like Rust, the readability like Python, the ability to generate native executables without dependencies like Go and a very cool type system. All while delivering fast compile speeds!

The adoption isn't like Rust and Go, but Nim is growing: https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/Organizations-using-Nim and the community is active across all socials.

Some downsides: not a big ecosystem(tho can piggyback off C libraries) and tooling isn't great.

Advent of Code would be a great way to dip your toes into a language you might not really care about!

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#6

Post by esimov » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:54 AM UTC

Seeing that the team behind Nim is accepting Bitcoin is not a good sign.

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#7

Post by mcc1ane » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:55 AM UTC

So did anyone decode the "It combines successful concepts from mature languages like Python, Ada and Modula." blurb yet?

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#8

Post by girvo » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:58 AM UTC

mcc1ane wrote: post #7

So did anyone decode the "It combines successful concepts from mature languages like Python, Ada and Modula." blurb yet?

It’s a language steeped in the Modula/Wirth and Python syntax tradition, with Ada-like type and memory features.

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#9

Post by girvo » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:59 AM UTC

posharma wrote: post #3

Genuinely curious - why should I care about Nim? There are already a plethora of general purpose languages (both compiled and interpreted). Also, is anyone using Nim today? What's the adoption?

I use it extensively for building firmware for an IoT sensor platform

Re: Nim 1.6.2

#10

Post by girvo » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 8:59 AM UTC

esimov wrote: post #6

Seeing that the team behind Nim is accepting Bitcoin is not a good sign.

Why’s that?