Lisette programming language
Hacker ApprovedRanked 60 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
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.
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.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good Go interop and readable output
“I find it quite good actually as i can see what hooks into the Go ecosystem instantly.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 on Hacker News “Lisette has been pretty straight forward, with its good Go interrop and familiarity”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Gleam doesn't compile to Erlang source anymore” “As a bonus you get all the goodies if go and a static binary.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Elixir v1.20 released: now a gradually typed language” - Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Gleam doesn't compile to Erlang source anymore”
Brings Rust-style features to Go
“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.”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Functional Programmers need to take a look at Zig” “Love the idea of bringing Rust ergonomics to the Go runtime.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” “It seems to combine the best aspects of both Rust and Go”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” - Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go”
Familiar, clean syntax
“Seems to hit the sweet spot in a lot of areas.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” “Lisette actually looks really nice!”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Elixir v1.20 released: now a gradually typed language” “I quite like the idea and syntax”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” - Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Clojure Hosted on Go”
Clear improvement over Go
“It looks very interesting, and a clear improvement.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” “I really like it, its a clear improvement to Go.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” “This is what go should have been”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unclear whether Go modules can be imported
“I've read the entire page and still don't know whether or not I can import Go modules in this language”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go” “it appears there is no way to import non-stdlib go modules”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lisette a little language inspired by Rust that compiles to Go”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 44 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“lisette produces good and readable go-code”
“both Gala and Lisette are fairly safe to invest in for small projects that you'd otherwise write Go in”
“its pre 1.0, so probably not used in prod”
“Lisette has been pretty straight forward, with its good Go interrop and familiarity”
“Close to gleam, compiles to Go.”
“Its very close to gleam, and compiles to Go.”
“IF you want more from the language you can use something like Lisette”
“Looks like a nice language.”
“Lisette actually looks really nice!”
“As a bonus you get all the goodies if go and a static binary.”
“so far im really liking it. Think is has some potential.”
“I find it quite good actually as i can see what hooks into the Go ecosystem instantly.”
“I don't love the mixing of PascalCase / camelCase and snake_case, though.”
“seems to be the best/most active version of a compile to Go language out there”
“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.”
“I still struggle to see the advantage of Option in a language with null-safe accessors and unions”
“I really like it, its a clear improvement to Go.”
“this is very close to what I originally considered”
“This is really cool! Go is so dead simple to learn but it just lacks a few features. I feel this really fills that specific gap.”
“A simplified language written in Rust and compiling to Go is a no-go.”
“This is what go should have been”
“To me, I see some encouraging thoughtfulness here. However, again, it's true most projects like this don't achieve liftoff.”
“Too many people are assuming it's still a closed-source thing and will dismiss it.”
“Im in the target audience and I like it”
“Both Borgo and now Lisette seem to act as though (T, error) returns are equivalent to a Result sum type, but this is not semantically valid in all cases.”
“I quite like the idea and syntax”
“Poor windows support, confusing and buggy tooling (yeah really), mediocre documentation”
“it appears there is no way to import non-stdlib go modules”
“I've read the entire page and still don't know whether or not I can import Go modules in this language”
“It looks very interesting, and a clear improvement.”
“Seems to hit the sweet spot in a lot of areas.”
“Love the idea of bringing Rust ergonomics to the Go runtime.”
“This is a cool project nonetheless”
“Why make it subtlety different so someone who knows Rust has to learn yet another language?”
“the type system of rust/rust-alike languages can be beneficial to people as-it-is”
“It seems to combine the best aspects of both Rust and Go”
“this looks like a step backwards”
“proper enumeration support”
“the "help" hints feel genuinely useful, not just compiler noise”
“Lisette brings you the best of both worlds.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.