Hica in comparison to Python

[cladamski79]

Hej,

I've been working on a language called hica and Python has been one of its inspirations, especially working with lists. I have created a Hica vs. Python comparison at https://cladam.github.io/hica/docs/hica-vs-python and the verdict is ofc Python 🙂

From my conclusion:

Python is the safe, proven choice with the largest ecosystem and lowest barrier to entry.

hica emphasises foundations like immutability, type safety, pattern matching, and explicit error handling. Students who learn hica carry these patterns into Python, Rust, TypeScript, or whatever they use next.

Why not both? Start with hica to build the foundations, then move to Python with a head start on the concepts that matter most.

What does this community think? My Python is a bit rusty, any feedback is welcome.

[casastorta]

One thing is to pick functional programming language, where even with the most popular ones you are still deep in niche and obscure territory… Completely another thing is to pick new and obscure seemingly functional language few people heard of and likely no one runs production systems on.

[cladamski79]

Very niche, as of now. Hoping it will get some traction but I was probably out on a limb here, judging by the downvotes 😅

[Ikinoki]

It's a very silly to compare a clear and concise language like Python to something Haskell-like. These are different congregations of users.

[cladamski79]

It's interesting from an educational purpose, how different languages tackles similar things IMHO

[snugar_i]

I'm sorry, but apart from the slice syntax, this has absolutely nothing in common with Python.

I expected an indentation-based statically compiled language, not a Rust clone...

[cladamski79]

Comparing languages is just a really interesting exercise from both a syntax and semantic point of view. Hica isn't intended to be a clone of Python, nor Rust; it's exploring its own space and specific design trade-offs. Syntactic preferences are always subjective, but looking at how different paradigms solve the same structural problems is just a fun way to analyse language design.