Ask HN: How do you get the word out about a niche language? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you get the word out about a niche language?

4 pointsbrundolf4 comments

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I've started work on a programming language that I think might have some real potential one day (unlike past, toy projects).

What I don't know is how in the world I'll drum up interest once the time for that comes, beyond posting it on GitHub and linking it on hacker news. I don't have a big Twitter following or anything, I've never spoken at a conference, etc.

How did languages like Elm, Zig, and Crystal get the word out at the very beginning? Anyone with suggestions or firsthand experience? Is there a blog post I can read?

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Write and release an app in it that would be difficult to write in existing languages, and make the fact that Whizzy New App is written in Whizzy New Language prominent.

Then provide lots of source code comparisons showing how doing (whatever) in Whizzy New Language is more pleasant/concise/bug-resistant than Old and Busted Language.

The other poster's idea of publishing papers is a good one, if you're shooting for an academic language for intellectual pursuits. If you want a language that people will use in the Real World, though, you're gonna need some Real World code.

The problem is that there are a lot of new languages coming out all the time.

Whatever route you go, make sure you tell people exactly what the advantages of Whizzy New Language are right at the top (at the beginning of the github README, in the abstract of the paper, whatever), because no one is gonna grovel through a bunch of docs to learn that.

I'm interested in new languages, so I usually at least click on announcements, but it doesn't take long for me to lose interest if I don't see some plausible major advantage within the first paragraph or two of text. Too much new material, not enough time to read it all.

For sure. I don't think papers/academia are really what I'd be going for; this is definitely more of a Real World language. It encapsulates lessons I've learned in a semi-specific domain in a way that keeps the programmer right on track, and greases the wheels of development at the same time. It has some new ideas but none of them are so alien as to be worthy of a paper.

I've got a very clear vision of the defining features and what sets it apart from the status quo, so I should have no trouble getting that across in the readme. The trick is getting people to see the readme in the first place :)

Example projects, ideally in the real world doing real things is a good point of advice. I'll look for opportunities along those lines when the time comes. Thanks!

Are you enough "in that field" that you could speak at a conference if your language had some interesting things to talk about?

Or maybe you don't have to be "in that field" (have a name/reputation there). Maybe it would be enough to start building the language, and if there are interesting/novel aspects, write them up in a paper, and start submitting that paper to PL conferences.

I think I could probably work my way into relevant conferences if I wanted to, though even then it seems a little bold to open with your own language out of the blue :P

But maybe that's a goal to work towards- try and get on some dockets for less-ambitious talks and then use that exposure to talk about my own thing one day

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