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A Programming Language Underdog

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Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#31

Post by mratsim »

nicoburns wrote: post #13
iTokio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are Nim’s main weaknesses?

A biggy is that it only really has a single developer, and no big corporate users. And relatedly the library ecosystem is relatively weak. It also has a GC, so it can't be used for really low-level stuff where that is a problem. It's looking pretty promising though. Especially if you are a fan of python's syntax.

I use Nim for Cuda, OpenCL and cache-sensitive/memory-bound multithreaded computation.

You can mix and match manual memory management and GC-managed types in the same codebase.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#32

Post by mratsim »

kryptiskt wrote: post #14
iTokio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are Nim’s main weaknesses?

It has no algebraic data types and pattern matching.

What algebraic datatypes is Nim missing?

It has generics, tuples, tagged and untagged unions, it even has C++20 concepts.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#33

Post by galfarragem »

k__ wrote: post #27
ducklingslicks wrote: post #4

I read the article. Still no idea what Nim is good for and why it's better than some other language.. and for which use cases?

What Crystal is for Ruby devs, Nim is for Python devs, I guess.

In theory yes, in practice it's not that clear.

You make a fast Rails in Crystal and a large percentage of Ruby community will jump in. In Python you can't do that, the community is fragmented. And you have already Julia..

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#34

Post by k__ »

dom96 wrote: post #5
ducklingslicks wrote: post #4

I read the article. Still no idea what Nim is good for and why it's better than some other language.. and for which use cases?

This might sound strange but Nim is good for everything. From writing backend services to creating web apps running on the client side. I've built emulators, CLI apps, a full blown forum and much more in it. It's particularly great for systems programming tasks that require high performance and zero dependencies. For example, Status is currently writing an Ethereum 2.0 sharding client for resource-restricted devices[…

Is it the best?

I read Rust is basically a safer drop-in replacement for C.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#35

Post by interfixus »

nicoburns wrote: post #13
iTokio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are Nim’s main weaknesses?

A biggy is that it only really has a single developer, and no big corporate users. And relatedly the library ecosystem is relatively weak. It also has a GC, so it can't be used for really low-level stuff where that is a problem. It's looking pretty promising though. Especially if you are a fan of python's syntax.

Two developers at least. One of whom is in this very thread. It's a concern, yes, but actually has been around for more than a decade, and is showing absolutely no sign of slowing down or going into hibernation.

I have just seen a ... competing language team spending developer time on purging the code of what they call ableism. apparently it's now offensive to talk of a sanity check ot to facetiously refer to OCD in a comment.

At least we may hope the Nim team lacks manpower for such idiocy.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#37

Post by dom96 »

k__ wrote: post #27
ducklingslicks wrote: post #4

I read the article. Still no idea what Nim is good for and why it's better than some other language.. and for which use cases?

What Crystal is for Ruby devs, Nim is for Python devs, I guess.

In some ways, yes. But in practice Crystal is far closer to Ruby than Nim is to Python.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#38

Post by recursive »

nicoburns wrote: post #13
iTokio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are Nim’s main weaknesses?

A biggy is that it only really has a single developer, and no big corporate users. And relatedly the library ecosystem is relatively weak. It also has a GC, so it can't be used for really low-level stuff where that is a problem. It's looking pretty promising though. Especially if you are a fan of python's syntax.

In this very article, which is pretty light on details, one of the few facts presented is that you can disable GC.

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#39

Post by dom96 »

jarcane wrote: post #24

I find the framing of “no big backers” kind of weird, considering they do have one big backer in a crypto currency startup that is providing the overwhelming majority of its funding. Sure it’s not the big coffers of Google, but it’s concerning that the entire language seemingly depends on the fates and desires of an incredibly volatile field. https://nim-lang.org/sponsors.html

This is a very recent development and it will only serve to accelerate development.

But yes, we do have sponsorship now. I don't consider it at the same level as the likes of Google/Mozilla though. If it wasn't for those companies I doubt Rust/Go would be alive today. You've gotta give us some points for our persistence :)

Re: A Programming Language Underdog

#40

Post by enthus1ast »

jarcane wrote: post #24

I find the framing of “no big backers” kind of weird, considering they do have one big backer in a crypto currency startup that is providing the overwhelming majority of its funding. Sure it’s not the big coffers of Google, but it’s concerning that the entire language seemingly depends on the fates and desires of an incredibly volatile field. https://nim-lang.org/sponsors.html

the last 8 years (or so) Nim lived withouth big bakers
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