# Forth programming language

92 Hacker News commenters recommended Forth programming language and 14 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 38 years (4 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for a tiny footprint, low overhead and fast, flexible programming that teaches how computation works. Common caveat: stack-based code is hard to read and maintain.

## Why people recommend it

- Teaches programming thinking and concepts (4 comments): "teaching Forth as a "grassroots" language for people who want to go back to the joy of programming as an art" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263726)) "I do think that "learning to think in Forth" is a skill that is something most developers should do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47290790)) "Forth is a way to teach programming concepts without getting bogged down in syntax" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49063458))
- Small footprint and low overhead (3 comments): "Forth had the advantage of low overhead, no-worse-than-a-compiler speed, and better-than-assembly productivity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47024045)) "gave me a renewed respect for the incredibly small footprint that can get you a working forth environment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147486)) "It's useful when you have to do a cram job to fit in a really tiny machine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45863563))
- Short, uncluttered syntax (3 comments): "Forth is very good in this regard, because the word names are short and there is no "fluff" around the syntax" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072940)) "Forth is pretty syntax sparse, depending on the implementation. Postfix operators solve a lot of that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49074740)) "Forth is a good starting point imo, you don't waste any time on non essentials." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46920778))
- Freedom to shape code your way (2 comments): "The freedom to express your thoughts exactly the way you want, and not how the compiler tells you to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45922643)) "Second, it’s completely unopinionated, and you can take it anywhere you want to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072603))

## What people warn about

- Stack-based code hard to read (4 comments): "This language is simple unintuitive and the Polish math notation will cause even more confusion." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49066785)) "stack languages really do require more effort to read and understand than pop infix languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46283812)) "it also does away with too many "niceties" like local variables or actually readable syntax" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038213))
- Personal code hard to maintain (2 comments): "definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd want in anything I wanted to be maintainable or long-lasting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45868200)) "every Forth codebase is so extremely personalized that it only makes sense to its author" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49867446))

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