Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Hy vs ATS, the Slant community recommends Hy for most people. In the question“What are the best (productivity-enhancing, well-designed, and concise, rather than just popular or time-tested) programming languages?” Hy is ranked 43rd while ATS is ranked 49th. The most important reason people chose Hy is:
Hy compiles to Python's abstract syntax trees. Python can import Hy modules, and Hy can import Python modules.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Python interop
Hy compiles to Python's abstract syntax trees. Python can import Hy modules, and Hy can import Python modules.
Pro Easier to read
Distinguished between arrays (or vectors) and function calls by using [] and (), respectively.
Pro Copyfree and open source
Uses the MIT (expat) license.
Pro Built-in formal specification
ATS has a theorem-proving type system powerful enough to prove that its functions meet their specifications. This happens at compile time with no performance impact at runtime. This can be used to prove that an ATS program doesn't have bugs commonly found in C++ programs, like "this function never leaks memory" or "this program never attempts to divide by zero" or "this buffer never overflows" or to verify pointer arithmetic, etc.
Pro Free and open-source compiler
The compiler (ATS/Postiats) is GPLv3.
Pro Functional programming
The syntax is ML-like with the usual functional language features like pattern matching and tail-call optimization.
Pro High-performance systems language
ATS works as a low-level systems language. ATS programs have performance and footprint comparable to programs written in C/C++.
Pro Good module system
Similar to Modula-3. This makes ATS a viable choice even for large-scale projects.
Pro Safe concurrency
ATS can prove its concurrent programs have no deadlocks or race conditions.
Cons
Con No Windows version
But it does run on Cygwin.
