The best programming environments, according to hackers
7 programming environments recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
All programming environments
- HyperCardRecommended for rapid prototyping and an easy entry into programming, with HyperTalk scripting and a built-in database and UI builder. Critics note its security model was weak and its stacks were often rough.62recommend
- QBasicRecommended as a self-contained, friendly BASIC programming environment with excellent built-in help, and as a first language for learning. Critics mainly note that the code it produced was often poor.27recommend
- QuickBASICPeople recommend it for its built-in syntax help, example programs and an interpreter that reports errors, making it a comfortable place to learn programming.8recommend
- Folk ComputerOpen-source physical computing project that runs on everyday hardware; people praise its openness and visual approach, though many open questions remain and it is still early.6recommend
- Glamorous ToolkitPeople recommend it as a live, inspectable environment for exploring data and code, built on Pharo. The recurring caveat is that it becomes slow when it repeatedly re-interprets and re-renders data structures.6recommend
- DrRacketFree IDE for Racket with features people say other editors lack, and used for teaching programming. Critics find its interface clunky and unintuitive, and say it can slow programs down.5recommend
- LiveCodeRecommended as a cross-platform successor to HyperCard that can import HyperCard stacks, though critics object to its move away from an open source version.5recommend