# Jai programming language Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/jai-programming-language/ 35 people recommended Jai programming language in Hacker News comments, 14 had mixed feelings and 21 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 20 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for fast compile times, strong metaprogramming, and ideas that Zig and Odin later adopted; critics question its feature sprawl, small adoption, and dependence on one developer. Summary written by Claude from 53 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 51 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Fast compile times (4 comments in the sample): "Blow proved his point by making a full blown programming language where he fixed things he complained about like compilation speed etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315685)) "faster Zig compile times benefits Jai, Odin and C3 as well, because then THOSE compilers can’t afford to slow down either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885957)) "the only modern language I'm aware of that was "co-designed" for efficient compilation and incremental reload is Jai." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47227006)) - Suited to game development (3 comments in the sample): "Jai seems perfectly reasonable for at least the narrow task of making games in an indie studio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46317285)) "The performance and API stuff is directly going to help game devs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315749)) "He built a language for a very specific task: building games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315522)) - Strong metaprogramming and codegen (2 comments in the sample): "Jonathan Blow's language, Jai, which has integrated codegen (AST macros that look like code) + type inference" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48729615)) "Jai’s metaprogramming features, which are ahead of everything else out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50233271)) - Simple, powerful, low-ceremony design (2 comments in the sample): "making programming less tedious, more enjoyable, more safe" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46323874)) "his focus is on making a simple but powerful language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315517)) ## What people warn about - Small adoption, losing ground (3 comments in the sample): "it's barely a drop in the bucket as far as the PL design community goes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315545)) "not a lot of people will choose Jai for programming, not in the next 20 years for sure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46470731)) "Jai looks cool but it's far far FAR behind and losing ground." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47013197)) - Unfinished, inconsistent feature set (2 comments in the sample): "It still has lots of limitation. But interesting angle." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164409)) "Jai approach is a kitchen sink, from what I saw it is all over the place in terms of features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48423825)) - Depends on one developer (2 comments in the sample): "spent the past 10 years and almost all of his money trying to build the perfect programming language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47431976)) "from its organizational bones doomed to fail for any outside party" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50231394)) - Manual memory, C-like syntax (2 comments in the sample): "Isn't Jai still mostly a C-like, with manual memory management and other archaic rituals?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45848718)) "It even makes syntax errors, that too a language looking similar to c." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672817)) ## 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, "Jai programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jai-programming-language/ (35 recommend, 14 mixed, 21 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.