# Lobster programming language

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Lobster programming language and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free programming language praised for simple, pragmatic design and memory management. Critics dislike its implementation inheritance.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, tidy and easy to use (3 comments): "This guy seems to have learned many lessons of language simplification and design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47242134)) "it was pretty tidy, and quite easy to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49749376)) "made to be pleasant to use first, fast second" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50225046))
- Pragmatic memory management approach (2 comments): "borrow checker/lifetime analysis automatically inserts reference counters if it can't statically determine lifetime is so vastly superior" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47300066)) "seems to be trying to take a new(ish) and pragmatical approach to memory management" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47245250))
- Rust-like exhaustive enum switches (2 comments): "you'll appreciate that Lobster lets you use similar exhaustive switches to Rust's enum instead" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47338254)) "It's like Rust, in that it makes expressing common illegal states just outright impossible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47297173))
- Built by a game developer (2 comments): "you made Lobster lang, Cube2/Sauerbraten 3d shooter and voxray/voxile and lots of other cool things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228531)) "reads like it was designed by someone who actually ships games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47298232))

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