# Boo programming language

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Boo programming language and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free .NET language that people praise for metaprogramming and multi-phase compilation. Caveat: it was deprecated and removed from Unity.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong metaprogramming and multi-phase compilation (1 comments): "Boo was so good at metaprogramming and multi-phasr programming!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46381743))
- Showed what was possible on .NET (1 comments): "Boo and Nemerle both were really showing what was possible in .NET back in the early days." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46381757))

## What people warn about

- Deprecated and removed from Unity (1 comments): "UnityScript and Boo got deprecated and removed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421756))
- Reported error running boo new (1 comments): "getting “error: ReadOnlyFileSystem” on ‘boo new’. Definitely interested in something like this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48497247))
- Discussions fizzle out (1 comments): "the conversations always fizzle out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49125405))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Boo programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/boo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).