IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

“Stop Designing Languages. Write Libraries Instead” (2016)

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Libraries Preferable to New Languages

Users favor libraries over new languages for easier adoption, tooling, and hiring, without ecosystem overhaul.
"The OP's point is well-taken: a new language usually forces you to change 100% of your environment and tooling, whereas a new library respects your habits and preferences." – jll29
"Libraries are great, but there is only so much they can address... Frameworks often require you to submit to their control flow." – jll29

2. Demand for Typed Scripting Alternatives to Bash

Many recommend typed, ergonomic scripting languages/tools like PowerShell, Nushell, Elixir, Raku, and Deno over Bash.
"I would love to have a scripting language has typed features and you can replace bash with." – dev_l1x_be
"Have you seen nushell? It lets me one-liner so many things... ls | where type == 'file' | sort-by size | take 4 | each {|f| {n: $f.name, s: ($f.size | format filesize MB) }} | to json" – jakkos
"The best benefit of nushell is... static type checks. It catches most typos before running the script." – BoppreH

3. DSLs, Libraries, and Languages Are Blurry; Title Misled Commenters

Debate blurs DSL/library/language lines; title (quotes stripped) sparked off-topic HN title-reading.
"DSL is a term with such fuzzy meaning... Languages and libraries don't even have to be opposing concepts." – conartist6
"The quotation marks having been stripped from the title changes the meaning quite a bit…" – xigoi
"I know that HN is famously a discussion forum where users comment based on the titles of submitted articles, rather than their content." – CPLX

🚀 Project Ideas

Bash-to-Nushell Transpiler

Summary

  • An online/offline tool that converts Bash one-liners/pipelines to equivalent Nushell code, with previews, type inference, and structured data handling.
  • Addresses "ugly text processing" in Bash (ectospheno's ls|awk|jq example) by auto-generating structured pipelines, easing migration without full relearning.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Bash users wanting structured data without switching shells fully
Core Feature Paste Bash → get Nushell + JSON preview; supports common patterns like ls/sort/grep
Tech Stack Tree-sitter for Bash parsing, ANTLR/Nushell AST builder, WASM for web
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • "how ugly text processing is: you have to use head and tail... awk and jq" (ectospheno, fainpul); "nushell is pretty awesome" but onboarding barrier (bbkane, 0x3444ac53).
  • Sparks migration discussions; practical for HN's CLI-heavy crowd.

Embeddable Prolog Library Kit

Summary

  • A lightweight, optimized Rust-based Prolog engine with batteries-included Python/JS/Rust bindings, WASM support, and zero-config embedding for logic queries in apps/scripts.
  • Fills gap for "Prolog as a library" in mainstream langs, avoiding full lang switch; enables quick rules for configs/validation without perf loss.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience App devs needing logic rules (e.g., config validation, PC part matching)
Core Feature Prolog::new().load_rules("rules.pl").query("valid_config(X)"); JIT-optimized
Tech Stack Rust (for core), PyO3/WASM-bindgen, miniKanren/datafrog inspired
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: OSS core + hosted inference SaaS

Notes

  • "Prolog is really a collection of algorithms which should be a library" (jmmcd); examples like PySwip sparse docs/perf issues (ramses0); Rust's datafrog mentioned (vlovich123).
  • HN logic/DSL fans would geek out; utility for "regexes for logic" in real apps like Gerrit rules.

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