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The Programming Languages Zoo

plzoo.andrej.com Reference Curated collections & archives Computer science Candidate
Screenshot of plzoo.andrej.com captured 2026-07-20
Page preview · captured 2026-07-20

Resurfaced independently across 5 calendar years, with breakout response in 3 of them.

submissions
6
submitters
6
observed span
2017–2025
peak thread · 55 comments
178 pts
latest 20+ return · 2025-10-23
125 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

Two powerful, mind-bending items missing from the list of paradigms: (1) Dependent types. c.f Idris (or Agda, or others -- but Idris). (2) Logic programming. (It appears in the list of languages ("miniprolog") but not the list of paradigms.) I consider both of these much more important than some of the more popular paradigms (object-oriented, procedural, dynamic typing -- if I never use such a language again it'll be too soon).

The primary (?) author of this site (Andrej Bauer) is a professor at the University of Ljubljana. I'm currently in his Principles of Programming Languages course and I have to say, it is the one and only "theoretical" CS subject that I've really enjoyed! Old recordings of his other classes are also the only thing that helped me actually understand proofs of program correctness last semester. Seriously, I went through all our lectures and basic materials twice and still didn't…

Made me think about this book https://webperso.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html where the author creates a mini language and extends it in many different paradigms.

tnlogy·125-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
3

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
456

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
81

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2017-05-08The Programming Languages Zoomrkgnao20
2018-08-17The Programming Languages Zoojxub10
2018-12-09The Programming Languages ZooFirst breakout · Best threadrfreytag17813
2021-05-03The Programming Languages Zoocreata14713
2023-10-25The Programming Languages Zoosigna1130
2025-10-23The Programming Languages ZooLatest 20+ point returnalabhyajindal12555