ABC programming language
Shares rank 133 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
Recommended as a pleasant, usable language with a good introduction in its repo; one critic found its PUT/INSERT syntax clunky.
Recommended as a pleasant, usable language with a good introduction in its repo; one critic found its PUT/INSERT syntax clunky.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Pleasant and surprisingly usable
“I tried to do some larger things with ABC back in the day. It was nice.”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)” “It actually looks surprisingly usable”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I tried to do some larger things with ABC back in the day. It was nice.”
“It actually looks surprisingly usable”
“The use of “HOW TO” for defining subroutines is kinda neat.”
“40 years ago this must have been super impressive”
“PUT ... IN ... and INSERT ... IN ... syntax looks quite clunky and un-composable”
“This looks like the best introduction to the language in the repo”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.