The illusion of apparent simplicity [LWN.net]

The illusion of apparent simplicity

Posted May 4, 2022 10:18 UTC (Wed) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935)
In reply to: The illusion of apparent simplicity by ddevault
Parent article: DeVault: Announcing the Hare programming language

You haven't answered his question, though.

Who is Hare designed to appeal to, and what does Hare bring to the table for them that Zig does not?

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The illusion of apparent simplicity

Posted May 4, 2022 10:22 UTC (Wed) by ddevault (subscriber, #99589) [Link] (2 responses)

Hare is much simpler than Zig, and can do similar tasks. It's has 1/10th the lines of code and both the language and standard library have a more narrowly defined, fixed scope which will not grow in complexity with time. Hare is a more conservative project than Zig and aims to provide a more robust and reliable basis for software built on it for the long-term. A Hare program written on the day of the 1.0 release will still compile and run correctly in 50 years. A Hare *compiler* written on the day of the 1.0 release will still compile new code written 50 years from now.

There are many differences between them, but the core philosophical differences boil down to this.

The illusion of apparent simplicity

Posted May 4, 2022 11:36 UTC (Wed) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935) [Link] (1 responses)

> Hare is much simpler than Zig, and can do similar tasks

No, it cannot. For example it cannot do async/await.

> A Hare *compiler* written on the day of the 1.0 release will still compile new code written 50 years from now.

Thanks for proving that you aren't learning from past mistakes, I guess.

The illusion of apparent simplicity

Posted May 6, 2022 7:23 UTC (Fri) by ddevault (subscriber, #99589) [Link]

I was not referring to a similar set of language features, but a similar set of supported use-cases.