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Ask HN: What is the best non mainstream programming language or stack in 2026?

1 points by kbrannigan ↗ HN
Out of curiosity I started developing in lisp, mindblown. Basically big language like Java, Javascript, C#, Python have a lot of momentum compared to more niche, academic languages like LISP, SmallTalk, Erlang, Haskell.

What is your experience with these languages in the era of LLM, where you now is able to create libraries on demand and better tooling ?

9 comments

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austin-cheney
I still prefer vanilla TypeScript whether writing a browser application, command line application, or both. The language is extremely mainstream but the mere mention of not using common abstractions will trigger holy wars from people who cannot program.
talmr
With LLMs, I choose tooling based on the task.

If I need to do some systems level engineering, I’ll reach for Go or Rust. There is generally no reason to use Rust first, because 99% of us will not need 99 percentile performance. I also find Rust to be a tougher language. 98 percentile performance with Go is fine, where there are usually one or at most 3 ways to do something.

If I need web API services, I’ll use typescript for the ecosystem. Most providers offer SDKs and the broader ecosystem is rich. I can use node or bun, and these services can scale nicely at a reasonable $/maintenance/performance ratio.

I’ll reach for Docker because compute is now expensive and dedicated hosting is cheaper than AWS/GCP. I can get a 2020-2022 processor with 128gb RAM and generous bandwidth for $100-200 a month.

amanbirs
I always enjoyed clojure. It had a steeper learning curve than something like python, but you could build really powerful systems and abstractions. Now a lot of that joy is gone and you're probably best off going for the most performant language (ex. Rust, go etc)
kbrannigan
I tried rust but the compilation times often make it hard to get into a flow state. I have no idea why it takes so long to compile. I thought low level languages compiled faster.
iainctduncan
If you enjoyed Lisp, you should definitely check out Scheme, Racket, and Clojure. Scheme is my personal favourite language. OCaml is also great.

I use s7 Scheme hosted inside C apps. One of the cool things about Scheme is that are a lot of different ways of using it. (embedded, compiling to C, standalone, etc).

linesofcode
LLMs let you choose the best language / stack for the problem you’re solving. My experience is that I’m able to build very performant Rust to solve some niche problems without having written a line of Rust code in my life. Without LLMs I would have defaulted to the languages I know and/or produce sub-par results trying to do in Rust.

I choose the best language / stack / framework for my use-case and then focus on building.

There is a lot of minutia and details in languages, frameworks, etc that I largely ignore whereas a few years ago I would actively try to convince someone to use some stack XYZ because of reasons.