# J programming language

9 Hacker News commenters recommended J programming language and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free array programming language that people praise for its brevity once they get past conventional syntax. Critics find its symbol-heavy syntax hard to read.

## Why people recommend it

- Fans of array languages (2 comments): "I like APL/J/Uiua, so this is perfect." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970904)) "my favorite PL which is J" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48859392))

## What people warn about

- Hard-to-read symbol-heavy syntax (3 comments): "If the weird syntax of APL and J bothers you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48161337)) "more suggestive and legible to me than J's emphasis on digraphs and forks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45893834)) "it's a hack to port APL to ASCII" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48138183))

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