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nprateem

I still feel there's space for a middle ground language. One that:

* compiles (ie no interpreter/VM required)

* is statically typed and has generics

* has exceptions or option types

* doesn't have a borrow checker

* isn't purely functional but has map, filter, pattern matching, etc

* has reasonable traction

Is there anything like this?

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Nim [0] feels like it ticks a lot of those boxes. Although it has Options I do not think the machinery is as robust as Rust where that feels like a foundational core of the language.

[0] https://nim-lang.org/

That's exactly the language I want as well. A mashup of Go and Rust that keeps the best of both. Also, don't forget "compiles fast"! And the garbage collector, although I'd love a language that allowed me to handle memory as well.

Here is one, https://dlang.org/

Thanks for posting this. I've never actually looked at D before but it does seem to tick all the boxes.

Dlang is a statically typed language that is more productive than most dynamic languages

Classes and Templates, ugh :(

Beyond that, it actually looks really cool!

You're looking at Ocaml

… F#? As of .NET 6, ahead-of-time compilation is a thing, and I am led to believe it's got substantially better in .NET 7.

Some correction though.

AOT is already a thing since .NET 1.0, but NGEN has always had the inconvenience of AOT on install with dynamic linking.

WinRT brougth MDIL on Windows 8.x, replaced by .NET Native on Windows 10.

Mono has always had AOT, specially due to Xamarin for Android.

Unity uses AOT for C# code, via translation of IL into C++, IL2CPP.

Currently Native AOT only supports CLI and libraries, .NET 8 hopefully will support GUI applications as well.

Java and C# do compile (GraalVM, OpenJ9 do AOT), .NET has NativeAOT, .NET Native, Mono AOT, IL2CPP.

Otherwise, D, Nim, Delphi, FreePascal.

I think something like V is what you're looking for:

https://vlang.io/

Perhaps V will be suitable for writing production systems one day. Until then, it doesn't seem suitable for anything outside hobby development.

To be clear, I wasn't telling GP to go and write production systems in V. Even though V has stabilized a lot by now, it's still a pre-v1.0 language and with that it carries potential risks.

I suggested to GP to take a look at V, though, because V has a Go-like syntax + it has everything GP is looking for.

Agree with that assessment, particularly relative to what the GP seems to be looking for. Vlang is a great alternative to check out.

> a borrow checker

Why do you see that a negative though?

Too complicated :(

Overall it provides guarantees I don't need for what I want to write so doesn't justify the additional cognitive overhead.

Kotlin Native?

Zig? I think it ticks all the boxes.

Swift?

Maybe Carbon eventually.

Java with Graal.

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