# Idris 2 Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/idris/ 20 people recommended Idris 2 in Hacker News comments, 6 had mixed feelings and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 18 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Dependently typed functional language admired for its type system, totality checking and proof features; critics find it hard for everyday application work and say it is young and still changing. Summary written by Claude from 41 comments. ## Why people recommend it - Dependent types and rich type system (4 comments in the sample): "Idris has pi and sigma types, dependent pattern matching, view patterns, totality checking, proof search, interactive case splitting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49112957)) "It feels like Haskell with an even more powerful type system and a companion expert system to alleviate the burden" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47753534)) "Maybe something with dependent typing like Idris2 or a future Haskell release?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47449854)) - Clean, well-designed language (3 comments in the sample): "it's the standard library which is very much like a cleaned-up Haskell standard library" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50139748)) "I also think it's the best designed out of any of them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752721)) "Agda and Idris are more beautiful for sure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008556)) - Totality checking (1 comment in the sample): "insist on total functional programming and use something like Idris' totality checker" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765621)) - Type-driven development and proof search (1 comment in the sample): "I do remember the "Type Driven Development" that Idris had that I thought was absurdly cool" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47678975)) ## What people warn about - Less productive for ordinary applications (3 comments in the sample): "Idris is designed to express executable programs, it has a wildly different grain to it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49113822)) "if you're writing an application you're going to be a lot less productive using Idris" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47807599)) "that worse user experience is also going to exist with Idris" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49112574)) - Practical use doubtful (2 comments in the sample): "there is probably good reason why no "real world" programs are written in languages with proper type systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45783913)) "in the end I never was able to practically use them to reduce bugs in the software I was writing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46200580)) - Seen as dead and unpopular (2 comments in the sample): "Idris feels mostly dead to me at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927312)) "both unsound and unpopular" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50321394)) ## Other programming languages people recommend - [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust/): 1346 recommend, 468 mixed, 715 criticize - [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language/): 855 recommend, 270 mixed, 513 criticize - [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python/): 683 recommend, 261 mixed, 719 criticize - [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig/): 454 recommend, 181 mixed, 358 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Idris 2", https://hackerapproved.com/p/idris/ (20 recommend, 6 mixed, 8 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.