Amber programming language
Shares rank 91 of 115 programming languages by recommenders
People recommend Amber for easier shell scripting that compiles to Bash, Ksh and Zsh, though critics say it hides bash's ergonomics behind another language.
7 people recommended Amber programming language in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
7 of the 7 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh”.
Summary written by Claude from 15 comments.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 6
The record
Recommended in 1 of 12 months
In 1 different thread.
- November 2025: not 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: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 1 threadNeeds 5 or more, not met.
- 7 of its 7 recommenders came from one threadNeeds half or less, not met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 14 of the 16 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Developers plan to try it
“I'm going to be looking into Amber again.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh” “I'm a fan of this project. Great work!”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh” Easier to write than bash
“Much needed. I have hard time understanding bash.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hides bash ergonomics behind another language
“this sacrifices the ergonomics of actual bash scripting, and hides it behind another language”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh” “Literally the worst of both worlds.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Amber the programming language compiled to Bash/Ksh/Zsh”
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.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rust | 1,346 | 468 | 715 | 65% | 12 | 4 yrs93 people | — |
| Go | 855 | 270 | 513 | 63% | 12 | 5 yrs53 people | — |
| Python | 683 | 261 | 719 | 49% | 12 | 18 yrs61 people | — |
| Zig | 454 | 181 | 358 | 56% | 12 | 1 yr21 people | — |
| Amber programming languageThis page | 7 | 1 | 6 | 54% | 1 | — | — |
Also compared with TypeScript, Java, Elixir and Ruby.
What people said
14 of the 16 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Amber resolves some of them”
“There is no example of what the compiled output looks like in the website or github.”
“portability but not posix shell? tsk tsk”
“this could easily be a toy that becomes abandoned”
“Regardless of where it’s deployed I can edit it and run it without any additional tools.”
“automatic `--help` + named args is still not a thing”
“I'm a fan of this project. Great work!”
“I'm going to be looking into Amber again.”
“Having one language that can generate zsh (macOS default), Fish (power users default), and bash would be really nice!”
“this sacrifices the ergonomics of actual bash scripting, and hides it behind another language”
“great job with your examples showing why someone might be interested in this language”
“Literally the worst of both worlds.”
“Much needed. I have hard time understanding bash.”
“hence the lack of wrapper that may not even be aware of these crucial cases at all”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.