# Mach programming language 10 Hacker News commenters recommended Mach programming language and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Readable, explicit systems language built without LLVM, with performance that one commenter says is only about 1.3x slower than C in some cases. ## Why people recommend it - Fully self-hosted, no LLVM dependency (3 comments): "fully self hosted without any external dependencies is incredibly impressive, amazing work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48454090)) "Archiving that without the behemoth of LLVM is really impressive!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456421)) "Quite impressive to develop so much without turning to LLVM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48457777)) - Explicit, anti-magic design philosophy (2 comments): "I find the goals of explicitness and maintainability to be really pitched to my current taste." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48455191)) "I like the anti magic and explicit philosophy you have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48473123)) - Readable syntax and standard library (2 comments): "I like the syntax. The example code and a couple files in src I looked at were all easy to read." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48454825)) "I really like the syntax and structure of the standard library" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48474452)) - Performance close to C in places (2 comments): "The performance is definitely something I'm happy with at this early stage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462723)) "In some cases, we were only about 1.3x slower which is fantastic IMO." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462530)) ## 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, "Mach programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mach-programming-language/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).