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Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by Someone1234 on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @05:37PM (#8926281)
Likely C#.

The syntax is unremarkable, but the libraries are a pleasure to use. Everything is well organised and it fixes a few of Java's rough edges, heck even just the fact that everything has a ToString() prototype is a huge "win."

Although C#'s recent feature additions have made producing spaghetti code easier (e.g. Linq) although C# wasn't immune from that before [0].

[0] https://code.google.com/p/elmah/source/browse/src/Elmah/Stac...

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by MagaManGo on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @06:21PM (#8926477)
Common lisp.

The tooling makes the language tangible. paredit. eval as you write with SLIME. completion with SLIME. macros. It feels like you are working with something alive and can hold it in your hands, rather than just plain text.

Other langs get 1 or 2 of the nice tools but never all of them. The parenthesis are a chore at first, but after paredit they are an asset, ironically making it easier to write than any other syntax I've found.

Clojure is ok, but just isn't there with tooling. Also it requires project structure. Feels like a loss of freedom against the JVM as a dependency. With Common Lisp you can just open a buffer and get hacking, and outperform the JVM to boot!

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by thom on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @08:24PM (#8926948)
We have a Clojure codebase and I agree that the JVM places a hard ceiling on some things, and there are big holes in the tooling ecosystem (or at least for Emacs, dunno about the other IDEs).

I wanted to second the comments about paredit though. It's something you have to force yourself to stay with for a few days at least, after which your eyes, brain and hands are all thinking in terms of S-expressions. This'll sound funny, but I honestly think it's one of the tools that has most reduced my stress levels in my whole career. Going back to other languages, you forget just how much syntax and structure you're wading through while trying to keep track of the meaning of your code.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by ptype on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:43PM (#8925972)
Python. Great eco system. Beautiful code. Lists, sets and dictionaries are native data types, and list/dict comprehensions are a joy. Metaprogramming is easy.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by gesman on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:48PM (#8925991)
+1 Even though I am not any good at it, but it's very ruby-ish (without shitty slowiness), perfect at data manipulations and great for regex-ing
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by mparramon on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:05PM (#8925768)
Ruby. It feels like telling the computer what I want to do, instead of piping my orders through some arcane syntax like most other languages.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by avinassh on Thursday January 22, 2015 @08:47AM (#8929074)
Python. I am a beginner and I am loving amazing things I can do with Python. It's very beginner friendly, has a great community. You can find tutorials about anything on interwebs. Most of the things one want to do are already there in the form of libraries. And you just have to take all of those and build together. Just like LEGO.

That's what I love about Python. I am working on a project with Python, after that I will try to explore other language and learn.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by jfaucett on Thursday January 22, 2015 @03:29PM (#8931529)
I think, for everyone it probably depends a lot on what each of us build as a programmer, because although most programming languages are "general purpose" they have communities and toolchains that tend to be more heavily specialized to one area.

For me, I do lots of web application dev, not websites but applications which I think makes a big difference in my taste. Personally, I love using Ruby because its ecosystem lets me rapidly and succinctly build ideas and mesh together APIs and the incoherence of the web in a clean way. But I've absolutely hated the ruby experience when building number crunching programs and desktop apps, here I found python to be a much more robust solution.

For command line apps on the other hand I really like Go and C, because I hate having to wait for dynamic languages runtime to load before I can run my command. So "enjoyable" for me really does depend on the context and the problem set I'm dealing with, because lets face it if you need to do bitmask ops those fancy floating point js numbers are just going to annoy the heck out of you and you'll really wish you had that simple unsigned short :)

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by rubiquity on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:48PM (#8925995)
Elixir. The combination of pattern matching with Erlang processes and "let it crash" philosophy is an absolute joy. Actors/Erlang processes and FP are really great for modeling the problems I find myself solving in a clear and easy to understand way.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by debacle on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:07PM (#8925777)
SQL, because I never feel rushed, the language makes sense, and all I'm doing is handing a recipe for matrix transforms to a query optimizer.

It's one of the few places that I really feel the magic of programming that was lost with the advent of the IDE, Java, etc.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by ScottBurson on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:42PM (#8925965)
Common Lisp. I'm an expert, and of course I've customized it heavily. (Especially with FSet [0].)

[0] http://www.ergy.com/FSet.html

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by dwarman on Thursday January 22, 2015 @03:06AM (#8928076)
Lua. Simple yet powerful. And - important for me - easily embedded into C and C++ programs, also pure ANSI C so very portable. Sorta like Javascript but with all the fat removed.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by jaywunder on Thursday January 22, 2015 @09:40PM (#8933135)
I have a friend that does lua, and he really likes it. What do you mean by "fat removed"?
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by dagw on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:41PM (#8925960)
Python. Has support for everything I need to get out of my way and let me focus on solving domain problems using programming rather than programming language problems.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by rjammala on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:36PM (#8925930)
Go. Mostly because it keeps things as simple as possible.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by thom on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @08:15PM (#8926920)
Clojure. I find the average and best case functions written in Clojure are more beautiful and satisfying than most alternatives, and much quicker to find. Emacs with paredit, cider (REPL), company mode (completion) etc is great.

Stack traces and the fact that nobody has yet released a decent debugger for cider are pain points. Also leiningen (package manager etc) performance is pretty crappy.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by krapp on Thursday January 22, 2015 @09:11PM (#8933068)
I'm the only one willing to admit it? Ok. Javascript.

The syntax for arrays and objects is dirt simple. Lambdas are easier to implement in javascript than any other language i've tried them in (python, C++, C#), and for the most part it just seems to do what I want with minimal syntax and little BS.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by sighype on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @10:39PM (#8927419)
C++11 (or higher).

I like template metaprogramming a great deal. I'd like to get so good I could be on the level of the guys who know the standards in and out, but that seems like a very difficult pursuit. :-)

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by s2mfin on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:22PM (#8925869)
C++. It allowes no sloppy coding. In mid 80's I was a BASIC coder at home, but these days, even though it's just a hobby, I feel I need strict rules how to code. Sam, Finland
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by mod on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @07:39PM (#8926785)
Clojure -- it's fun for me. I'm new to it.

In languages that aren't recreational: Python. Reads like pseudocode, whitespace-delimited is something I like, libraries when I need them.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by mooreds on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @05:18PM (#8926183)
Gosh, I still like perl. Don't do too much of that anymore, but man, it's terse and powerful for just getting stuff done.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by chrisbennet on Thursday January 22, 2015 @09:04PM (#8933051)
I really love C#. I'm back to being a C++ coder for the last 6 months and I miss it sometimes.

Why? Garbage collection is a wonderful thing.

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by squiguy7 on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @05:00PM (#8926070)
Rust has been great because it forces me to really invest time into doing something correctly instead of just coding.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by jksmith on Thursday January 22, 2015 @03:26AM (#8928114)
Golang - because I get shit done with it.
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by dpeck on Thursday January 22, 2015 @01:49AM (#8927913)
Ruby, though lately elixir is making a strong push
Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by iamjoday on Thursday January 22, 2015 @01:12AM (#8927826)
python.

Nash, http://joday.com

Re:Ask HN: What is the most enjoyable language to write code... by bloodorange on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @04:39PM (#8925950)
rust - the fun of C++ with safety guarantees