# Lisette programming language

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Lisette programming language and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Rust-like syntax and features such as enums and exhaustive pattern matching, compiling to readable Go that runs on the Go runtime. Main caveat: it is pre-1.0, so not yet proven in production.

## Why people recommend it

- Good Go interop and readable output (4 comments): "I find it quite good actually as i can see what hooks into the Go ecosystem instantly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48106576)) "Lisette has been pretty straight forward, with its good Go interrop and familiarity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990448)) "As a bonus you get all the goodies if go and a static binary." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48398698))
- Brings Rust-style features to Go (4 comments): "I can Highly recommend it, specially because you have Haskell experience (you get all the usual suspects, like ADTs, exhaustive pattern matching etc) in Lisette code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47960528)) "Love the idea of bringing Rust ergonomics to the Go runtime." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647957)) "It seems to combine the best aspects of both Rust and Go" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647335))
- Familiar, clean syntax (4 comments): "Seems to hit the sweet spot in a lot of areas." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647986)) "Lisette actually looks really nice!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48403694)) "I quite like the idea and syntax" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47649428))
- Clear improvement over Go (3 comments): "It looks very interesting, and a clear improvement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648345)) "I really like it, its a clear improvement to Go." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672173)) "This is what go should have been" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47653318))

## What people warn about

- Unclear whether Go modules can be imported (2 comments): "I've read the entire page and still don't know whether or not I can import Go modules in this language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648441)) "it appears there is no way to import non-stdlib go modules" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648623))

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