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Comment by wg0 | Hacker News Reader

This might irk many but going forward, I see only following languages surviving:

1. Typescript + Javascript

2. Rust.

3. Python - because of data science and interactive apps.

Basically, everything that can be rewritten in Rust with or without AI will be rewritten in Rust with or without AI in coming decade.

Famous cases:

1. Some backends at 37 signals from Ruby to Rust.

2. Bun from Zig to Rust.

3. Git in transition.

4. Mold linker from C to Rust.

5. Biome

6. TailwindCSS CLI

And much much more. Even Python interpreter is in process of using Rust as the main language if I am not wrong.

[0]. https://github.com/kevincouton/awesome-rust-migrations#1

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Even if you envision everyone migrating from C to Rust on principle (despite the risks inherent to such a large project), I really can't fathom existing Java and C# codebases going anywhere.

For that matter, the COBOL codebases are still out there.

> Even Python interpreter is in process of using Rust as the main language if I am not wrong.

They are beginning to take steps towards making it possible to include some Rust code. Nowhere near "using Rust as the main language". (Unless you're looking at alternate implementations, like the aptly named https://github.com/RustPython/RustPython .)

If a sizeable codebase from Rails can be converted to Rust and from Zig to Rust then it is only a matter of time that momentum will catch up to existing codebases as well and they would be rewritten with AI assistant.

That's writing on the wall.

C will continue to be running on embedded processors until the end of time.

And Apple platforms will use Swift until Apple invents a new language, Android still uses Kotlin, C++ will stick around for decades in automotive and aerospace where you need loads of expensive certifications and who knows if we'll ever be rid of COBOL (even with AI rewrites execs might not wanna risk the switch).

I hope something comes along that has a much more powerful type system like Rocq. I also dream of tagging certificates to values such as "this string has passed SQL validation".

Those 3 are my favorites languages, so I agree.

I'd add Go to the mix but yes all three are amazing languages. You do not need Java/C#/PHP etc anymore.

I don't see why Go needs to exist either when people are rewriting to Rust for anything backend related.

> Even Python interpreter is in process of using Rust

Citation needed. Outside of 3rd party/unofficial (ai-driven) attempts, I haven’t seen any evidence that the core python team is definitively moving away using CPython/python

GP is mistaken. The closest it gets is efforts like https://discuss.python.org/t/pre-pep-rust-for-cpython/104906 .

Since you've mentioned AI why not go directly to machine code, i.e. assembly or even binary?

That's just ridiculous. Not sure if you're serious, but if so, please make a serious attempt at this argument.

Because it's still cheaper and safer to implement in Rust and allow a compiler to mechanically and deterministically transform it into machine code. The value of abstractions are not going away.

There used to be a Pascal to C compiler. CHICKEN is a compiler for Scheme that generated C files. TypeScript is compiled to JavaScript (because we didn't have WebAssembly back then). Other projects use the LLVM compiler infrastructure. If you're referring to this, then fine, but it's just intermediate stuff. The end result is still assembly / binary.

Because code still would be read by humans. Check the code for PhotoCraft[0] (clean room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop) which is being actively written in Rust by AI agents almost 24x7.

Check the overall layered architecture. That's nowhere AI. That's pure human ingenuity coupled with machine's raw horsepower to build on top.

And such people do need to read the code.

[0]. https://github.com/storytold/photocraft

I just wish Rust were slightly more readable...

The async terrain is absolutely bonkers and not just not very readable but also not very understandable either I suppose.

If the project is entirely made by AI agents, why read the code? Who reads the binary (or asm) files generated by their compiler except a few people in rare cases?

Given the fact that sometimes the architectures is included in the specifications for a project, I can accept that humans created the one for PhotoCraft.

programming languages may just be a really good abstraction level to describe what you want.

Much like humans, language models have context limits. Abstractions exist for a reason, and good abstractions simultaneously make code easier to read for humans and easier to process for language models

language models reason from human examples partly, and a lot of the abstractions are simply actual useful compressions of information that are useful for LLMs as well

It would be great to have less languages and ecosystems rather than more. However, I think that none of these programming systems have hit a peak yet. There's a lot of innovation still to be done, and in that sense, id rather see more divergence and less consolidation.

Don't think so.

Rails was a convenient layer that made the time to market shorter. Now Basecamp as pretty much abandoned Rails. Don't think newer projects would be choosing Rails.

Same goes with React Native. Shopify abandoned it.

I see the same fate for Flutter. Many many frameworks and languages might get abandoned gradually. Add Qt to the list as well.

A lot would be erased and newer languages/frameworks won't gain any traction because AI wouldn't be proficient in them hence they are less liely to gain momentum.

That's the future, whether we like it or not.

Flutter is interesting because it's still the best for UI if you want to support mobile, web, and desktop, as no other UI framework comes close. I actually use Rust as the main business logic language inside Flutter via flutter_rust_bridge as I can then share logic with my Rust serverside code too.

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