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Nim 2.2.6

nim-lang.org

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Re: Nim 2.2.6

#41

Post by vindarel »

pansa2 wrote: post #23
treeform wrote: post #16

Thank you for working on the Nim Compiler. This is great. Another great release. The Nim Compiler continues to move forward. Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to the development of this superior language. Nim Compiler continues to be one of the most wonderful languages I have worked with. With the speed of C and the simplicity of Python, it has allowed me to write a lot of cool software. I do not kn…

> with the simplicity of Python So, not simple at all, then? Python is a very complex language hiding behind friendly syntax. Do you just mean “with the syntax of Python”? Or does Nim’s similarity to Python go more than skin-deep?

> with the syntax of Python

this library should allow that: https://github.com/hraban/metabang-bind (never tried)

with some limitations: https://github.com/nimpylib/nimpylib/tree/master/doc/mustRew... no "end" argument in print, no triple quote and newline, no "a not in b" (write not (a in b)), no variable named _ (underscore), or double underscore, no slice as foo[:b] where the left part of the slice is not specified, rewrite foo[0:b], etc.

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#42

Post by QQ00 »

netbioserror wrote: post #29
almostgotcaught wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> other than very robust metaprogramming lol then i guess zig's comptime isn't a "whiz-bang-pow killer feature" either

Metaprogramming isn't exactly new. I guess the novelty is that its history in the systems language space is spotty, and has only recently become usable in the way a Lisper might want to use it.

what programming languages have the metaprogramming capabilities that a lisper would want to look at to learn/use it?

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#44

Post by jp57 »

miguel_martin wrote: post #38
jp57 wrote: post #10

Nim has a python-like syntax, but I wish they'd gone farther, using `def` instead of `proc` and a `print` function instead of the `echo` statement. Though even if they did those things, I'm not sure it would really feel like programming Python. As a long-time Python programmer, I was drawn to trying the language partly because of the syntax, but as soon as I tried to write something substantial, Nim's heritage in lan…

If your really want to use the keyword def instead of proc: you can do that with sed. In all serious-ness, don't do that. I've used Python a lot, but Nim is a different language. Writing the proc keyword helps condition your brain to realize you are writing Nim, not Python.

Nim is indeed a different language, which was the point of my comment, for those who got past the first sentence. However, if folks are going to tout its “python-like” syntax as a selling point, it’s not really fair to then turn around and say, “no, it’s a different language”, when a Python programmer points out that it’s not really all that python-like after all, and maybe it could be more so.

If one is going to take pains to point out that there are good reasons why it is different from Python, then we can carry that as far as we like. There’s no particular reason to use indentation to denote blocks. BEGIN and END worked just fine, after all, and would be more true to Nim’s intellectual heritage. Or maybe just END, and continue to open the block with a colon.

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#45

Post by treeform »

pansa2 wrote: post #23
treeform wrote: post #16

Thank you for working on the Nim Compiler. This is great. Another great release. The Nim Compiler continues to move forward. Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to the development of this superior language. Nim Compiler continues to be one of the most wonderful languages I have worked with. With the speed of C and the simplicity of Python, it has allowed me to write a lot of cool software. I do not kn…

> with the simplicity of Python So, not simple at all, then? Python is a very complex language hiding behind friendly syntax. Do you just mean “with the syntax of Python”? Or does Nim’s similarity to Python go more than skin-deep?

I find that python has this simplicity other languages lack. Nim has it too. It's hard to strictly define it? Its a bit syntax, a bit lists or dicts, batteries included? A bit how you run it. Maybe a culture of straightforward code - at least in the python 2.x days. Maybe its just you write an algorithm and its easy to follow?

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#46

Post by treeform »

SJMG wrote: post #19
treeform wrote: post #16

Thank you for working on the Nim Compiler. This is great. Another great release. The Nim Compiler continues to move forward. Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to the development of this superior language. Nim Compiler continues to be one of the most wonderful languages I have worked with. With the speed of C and the simplicity of Python, it has allowed me to write a lot of cool software. I do not kn…

You've done a lot for the community yourself! Thank you for your excellent libraries and high-visibility usage of Nim at Reddit.

Thanks!

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#47

Post by foresto »

tinfoilhatter wrote: post #8
synergy20 wrote: post #2

nim is memory safe, python syntax, emits c/c++/js. It really deserves more love and publicity. more mature than zig, much easier than rust.

It's too bad that the BDFL of Nim (Araq / Andreas) treats the language like his personal compiler development playground. This has led to a hard fork of the compiler, many experienced and frustrated developers leaving the community and language behind, and an extremely fragmented ecosystem. He is also very difficult to work with and isn't very welcoming to newcomers. The community "leaders" / moderation team is also…

> He is also very difficult to work with and isn't very welcoming to newcomers.

That's a charitable way to describe him. In our one direct interaction, he was condescending to the point of insult. (I believe he was incorrect as well, but even if he was always correct, I would consider it wrong to treat someone badly.) After browsing the Nim forum and issue tracker, I found that this was routine behavior for him.

Nim has some nice features, but I don't want to depend on anything that's subject to the whims of a personality like that, and I certainly don't want to interact with him again.

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#48

Post by tokyovigilante »

Agreed, Nim is a fantastic language and heavily under-rated. Moved from Swift about 12 months ago and development has never been more Pleasant.

My only complaint is that the threading/async model and how memory and GC pools are managed per thread took me a bit to get used to, but the speed and C FFI are fantastic.

Also would say that the community is very helpful, particularly on the Discord/IRC channels I have used.

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#49

Post by PMunch »

tinfoilhatter wrote: post #8
synergy20 wrote: post #2

nim is memory safe, python syntax, emits c/c++/js. It really deserves more love and publicity. more mature than zig, much easier than rust.

It's too bad that the BDFL of Nim (Araq / Andreas) treats the language like his personal compiler development playground. This has led to a hard fork of the compiler, many experienced and frustrated developers leaving the community and language behind, and an extremely fragmented ecosystem. He is also very difficult to work with and isn't very welcoming to newcomers. The community "leaders" / moderation team is also…

> The community "leaders" / moderation team is also full of abrasive individuals with fragile egos.

I certainly hope this isn't the case any longer. As one of the moderators I feel the current group is very patient and welcoming. At least that's what we're trying for, no one is perfect so I'm certain you can find counter examples. But as a whole I think we're doing pretty well. If you have any specific complaints we would love to hear them. They can be left anonymously in our community feedback form, or you can find we anywhere in the community for a chat.

Re: Nim 2.2.6

#50

Post by auxym »

pansa2 wrote: post #17
whalesalad wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been meaning to explore Nim for a while because it feels like "golang, but python syntax and dev experience." I vibe coded a simple tool, tt, that allows me to track time to a central log from all my devices. Realllly simple: $ tt stats Time Tracking Stats Total entries: 39 First entry: Oct 21, 2025 23:04 Last entry: Oct 30, 2025 18:29 Tracking since: 228h 34m Days tracked: 5 $ tt "working on xyz today" Logged…

What are the `@` characters for? Are they what makes it feel like Perl? Because other than them I don’t think the equivalent Python code would look much different. Maybe more concise, e.g. you could replace the second section with something like `sorted = entries.sorted(key=lambda entry: entry.timestamp)`.

@[] is syntax for a "seq", which is similar to a C++ vector, ArrayList in Java/C#, or a python list. It's a heap-allocated array that automatically resizes.

In contrast with [], which is mostly identical to a C array: fixed size and lives on the stack.

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