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SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Very good performance
Nim consistently benchmarks ahead of Go, Java, C#, Haskell, and of course all the scripting languages.
Pro Strong metaprogramming capabilities
Macros, templates, and compile-time constructs allow DSL's and simplification of code.
Pro Best ratio of performance to programmer difficulty
If you want the best performance at any cost you of course go with C, but most of the time you want to maximize both performance and developer effort.
Nim's benchmark results are almost equal to Rust, and well ahead of Go, Java, C#, etc. Nim's programmer difficulty is almost as low as Python.
Pro Easy to read
Nim has a lot of common with Python in terms of syntax.
Indentation-based syntax, for/while loops.
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()
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).
Pro Has built-in async support
Nim has "asyncdispatch" module, which allows you to write async applications.
Pro Smaller binary size
Binary sizes for a compiled program tend to be smaller than other languages.
Pro Compile-time execution
Nim has 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.
Pro Type inferencing
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).
Pro Built-in Unicode support
You can use unicode names for variables, there is "unicode" module for operations with unicode.
Pro Garbage collector is optional, we can mix GC and no-GC types in the same codebase
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.
Pro Has built-in unittest module
With built-in "unittest" module you can create tests with very readable code.
Pro Safe, race-free threading model
Safe, race-free threading model using the built-in disjoint check.
Pro Strikes great balance between performance and productivity
While Nim is really fast, it is also elegant and productive. Optional GC, python-like synthax and minimal design all help you solve real world problems.
Pro Grass-roots, community driven language
The development is not directed by a single, large company.
Pro Swift like memory management (ARC)
Plain reference counting with move semantic optimizations, offers a shared heap. It offers deterministic performance for hard realtime systems.
Cons
Con Memory management confusion
Multiple choices of garbage collection that causes confusion. Various times, nothing works particularly well.
Con Non-standard multithreading model
Nim has very strict rules on memory sharing between threads, in order to keep garbage collection latency to a minimum. Message passing and copying must be used. This will be changed when ARC memory management model will become the default (as of 1.2.0 it's an experimental option).
Con Weird thread model
Not turned on by default. Has very odd and convoluted rules on memory sharing between threads. Harder to use.
Con Tooling not yet as good as the more commercial languages
Compared to languages such as C#, Nim lacks great IDE support. The debugging tools are somewhat inconvenient to use.
Con Nim needs a lot more documentation
Details on features and how to use needs to be fully documented.
Con Nim likely to be supplanted by Mojo
Strong arguments that Mojo will mostly surpass or overshadow Nim as a Python alternative.
Con Community harsh if criticized
If one dares to start a discussion about a feature on discord, subreddit or github then one will be aggressively shut down.
Con Atrocious error messages
Unhelpful to users, wasting hours deciphering and extremely annoying.
Con Garbage collection/threading blues
For version 1.1 or 2.0 or whatever they should make the language more clear in the choices for garbage collection.
Con Garbage collection choices
Nim has multiple choices for garbage collection, and choosing which is best for your code may not be obvious.
Con Inconsistent name formatting
Headache creation with snake_case, pascalCase, and being case-insensitive too.
Con Con artist pushed useless language
False hype con artist language pushed by tricking Python users. Nobody need this language, not even on TIOBE index top 100 list, but it came out 2008. You not get job knowing Nim. Bad for even hobby, others better to learn and use.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
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.
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).
Out of Date Pros + Cons
