What are the best languages to learn for someone coming from Python?

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Oct 17, 2020

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16 Options Considered

Best languages to learn for someone coming from Python	Price	Current stable version	Site
-- Nim	-	1.2.6	https://nim-lang.org
-- Julia	-	1.4	julialang.org
-- Smalltalk	-	6.1	-
-- Racket	-	7.8	https://racket-lang.org
-- C	-	-	-

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score 20 · Answer 1

Nim

Top Pro

Most of the best Python ideas are carried over

Most of the best Python ideas are carried over, and even much of the syntax is the same. There's a lot more depth here available as well (i.e., metaprogramming, macros, templates). See More

Top Con

Small community

The community around Nim is a lot smaller than competitors', such as D, Crystal, and Rust. See More

Specs

Current stable version:1.2.6

Site:https://nim-lang.org

Platforms:Windows, MacOS/iOS, Linux /Android/Termux, *BSD, Solaris/SmartOS, HaikuOS, lots of others

License:MIT

See All Specs

Top Pro

It's very fast

https://github.com/kostya/benchmarks See More

Top Con

No interpreter

It compiles quickly, but the lack of a run-time interpreter means that it's a bit harder to learn than Python since you can't try syntax quite as quickly. See More

Top Pro

Familiar indentation-based blocks

Nim has a syntax influenced by Python's. See More

Top Pro

Static typing that doesn't get in your way

Static typing makes your code safer, but most statically typed languages are slower to code in. Nim has type inference in every place that it makes sense and the compiler will raise errors if you make a mistake or introduce ambiguity. See More

Top Pro

Easy to read

Nim has a lot of common with Python in terms of syntax. Indentation-based syntax, for/while loops. See More

Top Pro

Supports UFCS (Unified Function Call Syntax)

writeLine(stdout, "hello") can be written as stdout.writeLine("hello") proc add(a: int): int = a + 5 can be used like 6.add.echo or 6.add().echo() See More

Top Pro

Easy to integrate with other languages

You can use Nim with any language that can be interfaced with C. There's a tool which helps you to create new C and C++ bindings for Nim - c2nim. Also, you can use Nim with Objective C or even JavaScript (if you're compiling for these backends). See More

Top Pro

Really cross-platform

The same code can be used for web, server, desktop and mobile. See More

Top Pro

Garbage-collected

You don't need to deal with all those manual memory allocations, Nim can take care of it. But also you can use another GC, or tweak it for your real-time application or a game. See More

Top Pro

Great metaprogramming features

There are generics, templates, macros in Nim. They can allow you to write new DSL for your application, or avoid all boilerplate stuff. See More

Top Pro

Built-in Unicode support

You can use unicode names for variables, there is "unicode" module for operations with unicode. See More

Top Pro

Multi paradigm

Imperative, OOP, functional programming in one language. See More

Top Pro

Easy to integrate with another languages

You can use Nim with any language that can be interfaced with C. There's a tool which helps you to create new C and C++ bindings for Nim - c2nim. Also, you can use Nim with Objective C or even JavaScript (if you're compiling for these backends). See More

Top Pro

Strict typing

Checks your code at compile time. See More

Top Pro

Type interferencing

You only need to specify types in your procedures and objects - you don't need to specify type when you're creating a new variable (unless you're creating it without initialization). See More

Top Pro

Compile-time execution

Nim has a built-in VM, which executes macros and some other code at compile time. For example, you can check if you're on Windows, and Nim will generate code only for it. See More

Top Pro

Has built-in unittest module

With built-in "unittest" module you can create test with a very readable code. See More

Top Pro

Has built-in async support

Nim has "asyncdispatch" module, which allows you to write async applications. See More

See All

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score 10 · Answer 2

Julia

Top Pro

Amazing learning curve

Julia requires no boilerplate code – a beginner needs to write only the parts they care about. This combined with the REPL provides the best learning experience available. See More

Specs

Current stable version:1.4

Site:julialang.org

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD

Type Model:Dynamically Typed

Top Pro

PyJulia package calls Julia in Python scripts

Top Pro

Nice regular syntax

Julia code is easy to read and avoid a lot of unnecessary special symbols and fluff. It uses newline to end statements and "end" to end blocks so there is no need for lots of semicolons and curly braces. It is regular in that unless it is a variable assignment, function name always comes first. No need to be confused about whether something is a method on an object or a free function. Unlike Python and Ruby, since you can annotate the types a function operates on, you can overload function names, so that you can use the same function name for many data types. So you can keep simple descriptive function names and not have to invent artificial function names to separate them from the type they operate on. See More

Top Pro

High performance

Julia is much faster than Python, but is about as easy to use. It's a good alternative to C extensions in many cases. See More

Top Pro

PyCall package calls Python functions

Julia has good interop with Python libraries. Use what you already know. See More

Top Pro

Lisplike macros

Proper AST macros allow you to write DSL's in Julia that allow you to program much closer to your problem domain. Once you have a DSL that is properly debugged, this tends to eliminate the "translate the specification into a program" step and allows libraries to export extremely convenient API's. For example, for a given math problem which has a standard graphical notation on paper, it is often possible to write a Julia macro that almost exactly matches the notation that one would use on paper. Examples would include index notation for tensors ( https://github.com/Jutho/TensorOperations.jl ) that translates repeated indices into tensor contractions, or a reaction network DSL to translate a list of chemical reactions into the differential equations that they lead to. See More

Top Pro

Great standard REPL

Out of the box Julia has a very good Read-Eval-Print-Loop, which both completes functions and types, as well as completion based on history of previous statements. It integrates well with the shell and has an excellent online help system. See More

Top Pro

Powerful n-dimensional arrays

Julia has built in n-dimensional arrays similar in functionality as Python's numpy. See More

Top Pro

Function and operator broadcasting

You can perform operations on scalars, for example 2^2 or [1, 2, 3].^2. See More

Top Pro

Function overloading

You can have multiple functions with the same name, but doing different things depending on function arguments and argument types. See More

Top Pro

High-level code

Julia provides a high level of abstraction, making platform-independent programming trivial and easing the learning curve. See More

Top Pro

Strong dynamic typing

Dynamic and high level, but does not isolate the user from properly thinking about types. Can do explicit type signatures which is great for teaching structured thinking. See More

Top Pro

Almost as fast as C

Julia runs almost as fast as (and in fact in some cases faster than) C code. See More

Top Pro

Written in itself

The Julia language is written in itself to a much larger extent than most other languages, so a budding programmer can read through the depths of the standard library and learn exactly how things work all the way down to the low-level bit-twiddling details, which can be englightening. See More

Top Pro

Strong Metaprogramming

Julia allows you to edit Julia code in the language itself and write powerful macros. It is a great introduction to metaprogramming features. See More

Top Pro

REPL-based

The Julia REPL allows quickly testing how some code behaves and gives access to documentation and package management immediately in the REPL. See More

Top Pro

Used in Data Science as Python

See All

score 5 · Answer 3

Smalltalk

Top Pro

As a first language, almost forces you to learn OO design.

Hybrid languages (e.g., Java, C#, C++) make it easy to slip into procedural thinking. Smalltalk's pure OO approach makes it hard not to think in object-oriented terms. In addition, since the entire IDE and runtime components are there in the image for you to browse, you have plenty of examples of good OO design to learn from. See More

Top Con

Not common

Smalltalk missed an opportunity to become mainstream when its implementations cost $5000 per seat versus $0 open source. New open source implementations (Pharo, Squeak) have minor corporate backers but not yet an IT behemoth. Direct jobs are scarce (but indirectly Smalltalk experience is very well regarded). Online communities are relatively small. See More

Dave Mason's Experience

One of my favourite 5 languages. I love using it because OO programming becomes so clear. See More

Specs

Current stable version:6.1

GZipped size:38MB

IDE Support:Self-Hosted

OS:Windows, macOS, Linux

Top Pro

Lets you inspect and manipulate live objects

Python has an interactive mode that lets you inspect and manipulate live objects. The docstring feature and dir() function make Python better at this than many comperable scripting languages. If you like that about Python, you'll love Smalltalk, which does this kind of thing even better. See More

Top Con

Virtual machine in its own isolated world

Smalltalk wants to be the whole OS. While this has tremendous advantages internally, interacting with the world outside the VM is not as easy as pure Smalltalk and must be done via a Foreign Function Interface. See More

Top Pro

Extremely simple grammar

All the syntax famously fits on a postcard. This makes Smalltalk one of the easiest languages to learn, even easier than Python, so you can quickly move on to learning Smalltalk's awesome environment and tools. Unlike overly complicated languages (like JavaScript and C++) Smalltalk gets out of your way so you can focus on the problem at hand. See More

Top Con

Little practical usage

This language is only used in a few projects in the wild. You will learn some principles but it is not a certainty that you will be able to use this language in your career. See More

Top Pro

Powerful integrated debugger

You can edit code and swap it in while the your program is still running after an exception has already been signaled, or restart from anywhere in the call stack. You can inspect and modify the state of any object. Some Smalltalkers write unit tests and then program exclusively in the debugger. See More

Top Pro

Language uniformity

This leads to a very simple programming model (pure OO) that is still very powerful. A lot of stuff that is hard to implement in other languages is easier in Smalltalk. See More

Top Pro

Superb Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

All tools (Inspector, Browser, Debugger etc.) are written in Smalltalk and are live objects in the environment. All sources are present, so that the tools can easily be studied, changed and experimented with. The same goes for the other components like the compiler, OS-Integration etc. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn and experiment

See All

score 2 · Answer 4

Racket

Top Pro

Racket was designed to teach functional programming from the start

Racket is based on Scheme (LISP Family) and is very similar to Clojure. So there are a ton of () at the end of s-expressions (in total give a few take a few the same amount as Java or similar languages). The reason it is easier to learn is that it is not trying to be "Pure" if there is even such a thing in terms of Functional Programming. The great thing about Racket is it has everything included. You get DrRacket for developing programs. You want to add a picture to your software you can insert pictures. If you want to add libraries just open the package manager. The Syntax is an opinion but it really does feel easier to see what is happening since everything is in brackets) Racket is a really a Programming Language for making Programming Languages. So there are smaller syntax Racket called Student Racket which makes things easier to pick up. See More

Specs

Current stable version:7.8

Site:https://racket-lang.org

Platforms:Linux, Windows, OSX

Price:Free

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free resources to learn

Includes several free online books and great documentation. See More

Top Pro

Easily embeddable

Racket is famously embedded in the game engine underlying Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us games, because it proved to be so easy to embed. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 5

C

Top Pro

Lets you learn a bit more in depth things that python does automatically

Like static typing. See More

Top Pro

Python has excellent interop with C

The primary Python implementation is CPython. Much of Python's standard library is written in C. You can either extend or embed. See More

Top Pro

Learn about buffers

Normally not knowing buffers can lead to one of the most common security issues (buffer overflow). See More

Top Pro

C has great synergy with Python

You can write your program in Python and write fast functions for it in C. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 6

Haskell

Top Con

Very Different from Python

Top Pro

Powerful static type system that helps with finding errors at compile-time

This is a very different approach than Python's duck typing. Static vs dynamic typing is something of a Holy War, but opponents of static typing have probably only used a dysfunctional variant like Java or C++. Haskell's type system is much better because it has Hindley–Milner type inference. This means the static type system helps you more than it gets in your way. See More

Specs

Site:https://www.haskell.org/

Paradigm:functional

Type System:static

Top Pro

Monad comprehensions

If you like Python's list comprehensions, you'll appreciate Haskell's generalization of the concept. See More

Top Pro

Technique is applicable to Python

Haskell is a pure functional language, so it kind of forces you to use the functional style. You can apply much what you learn to Python. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 7

Xonsh

Top Pro

Rust-like macros

The Xonsh interpreter lets you intercept and rewrite code at various stages in the compilation process. See More

Top Pro

Easy Python interop

As a superset of Python it's possible to import and use all of Python's libraries. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for glue code

Python was already pretty good at this, but Xonsh's shell-like features makes it even easier to interface with command line programs. See More

Top Pro

Superset of Python

Xonsh is Python, plus some shell-like features. Any valid Python 3.4+ script should work as a .xsh script. Use what you already know. See More

Top Pro

Use it as your shell

Xonsh can be used for scripts, but it was designed as a complete shell. It has nice autocomplete features in its interactive mode. You can use it as your main shell instead of bash or cmd. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 8

Hy

Top Pro

Can import Python modules

Including Python's standard library. See More

Answer 9

Rust

Current stable version:1.4.0

Platforms:Linux, MacOS X, Windows, BSD

License:MIT/Apache

score 2 · Answer 10

Boo

Top Pro

IDE support

The open-source #develop comes with Boo support. See More

Top Con

The documentation isn't as good as Python's

There are some Boo textbooks. You can also find examples of Boo's language features in the Git repository, but it doesn't seem to have a thorough description of the language itself like Python does. See More

Top Pro

Static type safety

This also improves performance as compared to IronPython. You can still use duck typing if you want, but you mostly don't need to since Boo can infer the type based on context. See More

Top Pro

Inter-operates with other .NET languages

Boo runs on the .NET platform, so you can pretty much use it for anything C# is good for. See More

Top Pro

One of Unity's supported languages

Use your Python skills to make games. See More

Top Pro

Familiar syntax

Boo's syntax was heavily influenced by Python's, but makes some improvements like macros and multi-line lambdas. See More

See All

Answer 11

Haxe

Current stable version:4.0.3

Site:https://haxe.org/

Platforms:Web, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, OSX, Linux

Price:Free, Open Source

score 1 · Answer 12

miniKanren

Top Pro

Can be used in Python programs

miniKanren was originally implemented in Scheme, but it's such a simple language that it has been implemented in many other languages. There are several implementations written in Python that you can use in Python programs. See More

Top Pro

Teaches you Logic Programming

This is a different way of thinking. Sometimes things that are really hard in the imperative style become easy to do in a logic programming language. See More

Answer 13

Ruby

Current stable version:2.6.0

Site:https://www.ruby-lang.org

Price:Open Source (Free)

GZipped size:15.9 MB

Answer 14

Pharo

Site:http://pharo.org

Platforms:MacOSX; Linux; Windows

Price:Free / Open Source

License:MIT

See All Specs

score 2 · Answer 15

Cython

Top Pro

Good for interfacing C/C++/Fortran libs

It's basically C with Python syntax. See More

Top Pro

Full control over the types

Top Pro

Superset of Python

The Cython language is an extension of Python, so your Python knowledge is applicable. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 16

Stick with Python

Top Pro

Teaches you all the basics you need

Answer 17

Bookfinder.com

Answer 18

Bogotá Ruby

Answer 19

16 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Nim

My Recommendation for Nim

Most of the best Python ideas are carried over

Small community

It's very fast

No interpreter

Familiar indentation-based blocks

Static typing that doesn't get in your way

Easy to read

Supports UFCS (Unified Function Call Syntax)

Easy to integrate with other languages

Really cross-platform

Garbage-collected

Great metaprogramming features

Built-in Unicode support

Multi paradigm

Easy to integrate with another languages

Strict typing

Type interferencing

Compile-time execution

Has built-in unittest module

Has built-in async support

My Recommendation for Julia

My Recommendation for Julia

Amazing learning curve

PyJulia package calls Julia in Python scripts

Nice regular syntax

High performance

PyCall package calls Python functions

Lisplike macros

Great standard REPL

Powerful n-dimensional arrays

Function and operator broadcasting

Function overloading

High-level code

Strong dynamic typing

Almost as fast as C

Written in itself

Strong Metaprogramming

REPL-based

Used in Data Science as Python

My Recommendation for Smalltalk

My Recommendation for Smalltalk

As a first language, almost forces you to learn OO design.

Not common

Lets you inspect and manipulate live objects

Virtual machine in its own isolated world

Extremely simple grammar

Little practical usage

Powerful integrated debugger

Language uniformity

Superb Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Easy to learn and experiment

My Recommendation for Racket

My Recommendation for Racket

Racket was designed to teach functional programming from the start

Free resources to learn

Easily embeddable

My Recommendation for C

My Recommendation for C

Lets you learn a bit more in depth things that python does automatically

Python has excellent interop with C

Learn about buffers

C has great synergy with Python

My Recommendation for Haskell

My Recommendation for Haskell

Very Different from Python

Powerful static type system that helps with finding errors at compile-time

Monad comprehensions

Technique is applicable to Python

My Recommendation for Xonsh

My Recommendation for Xonsh

Rust-like macros

Easy Python interop

Excellent for glue code

Superset of Python

Use it as your shell

My Recommendation for Hy

My Recommendation for Hy