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The most popular blog posts about programming languages on Hacker News. 5,634 posts.

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1952

The Simplicity of Prolog

Nowadays the most popular programming languages are Python, Javascript, Java, C++, C#, Kotlin and Ruby, and the average programmer is probably familiar with one or more of these languages. It's relatively easy to switch from one to another (barring any framework specific knowledge that may be needed), since they are…

1955

Java Hello World, LLVM Edition

After exploring Java bytecode in previous years (2022, 2023, 2024), this year we’ll take an unexpected detour for a Java advent: instead of generating Java bytecode, we’ll use Java to build and execute LLVM IR, the intermediate language behind compilers like clang. Using Java’s Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) API…

1966

Racket v8.5

Racket version 8.5 is now available from https://download.racket-lang.org. As of this release: Racket's new `-y` flag automatically keeps compiled files up to date, reducing subsequent load times. Error-message realms allow Racket-hosted langua...

1967

TypeScript 2.4

Today we're excited to announce the release of TypeScript 2.4! If you haven't yet heard of TypeScript, it's a superset of JavaScript that brings static

1968

Racket v6.8

_posted by Vincent St-Amour_ Racket version 6.8 is now available from http://racket-lang.org/ Racket sports a new logo, courtesy of Matthew Butterick. MacBook Pro laptops with touch bars are supported. Support for FreeBSD on PowerPC. ...

1969

Clojure Plays Mario

Before getting too far into the weeds, let's begin with the results. Without too much effort, an AI was written in clojure that could complete all of the levels in the original Super Mario Bros for the NES except for the Bowser levels that have mazes. Namely, levels 4-4, 7-4, and 8-4 were not completed (more on this…

1972

The borrow checker within

This post lays out a 4-part roadmap for the borrow checker that I call “the borrow checker within”. These changes are meant to help Rust become a better version of itself, enabling patterns of code which feel like they fit within Rust’s spirit , but run afoul of the letter of its law . I feel fairly comfortable with…