Modula-2
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 74 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
Recommended for its safety over C and Pascal and its design for systems programming, and for teaching core concepts. Most common caveat: little use in finding a job.
Recommended for its safety over C and Pascal and its design for systems programming, and for teaching core concepts. Most common caveat: little use in finding a job.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 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
Designed for systems programming
“ignoring that Modula-2 came out already in 1978, designed for systems programming and fixing Pascal initial flaws”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers” “Modula-2 was already available, taking care of those pain points, designed for systems programming”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Rust in Android: move fast and fix things” “being the language Wirth actually designed for systems stuff”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “QBE – Compiler Back end: Version 1.3” Safer than C and Pascal
“My criteria is being as safe as Modula-2 and Object Pascal, as bare minimum.”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “How to write generics in C” “Modula-2 / Objective Pascal like safety was great during the last century”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Bun's experimental Rust rewrite hits 99.8% test compatibility on Linux x64 glibc” “Heap memory handling in Pascal, Modula-2, Ada, is much safer than C”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “C Isn't a Language” - Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Zig 0.16.0 Release Notes”
Fixed Pascal's flaws
“ignoring that Modula-2 came out already in 1978, designed for systems programming and fixing Pascal initial flaws”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers” “Some of the things you listed (dangling else, variant records, Wirth has fixed in Modula-2 or Oberon)”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Dijkstra's Crisis: The End of Algol and Beginning of Software Engineering (2010) [pdf]” “Modula-2 was already available, taking care of those pain points, designed for systems programming”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Rust in Android: move fast and fix things” - Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Linux Eliminates the Strncpy API After Six Years of Work, 360 Patches”
Good for learning core concepts
“It was useful for teaching core concepts, but very limited use in terms of finding a job.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Modula-3 History Collection on Computer History Museum” “Everyone seemed to pick up the language just fine.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “ga68, the GNU Algol 68 Compiler – FOSDEM 2026 [video]” “I learned first on Pascal & Modula-2”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “PL/0”
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
34 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“we as industry should have long replaced both of them with something better, since Ada and Modula-2 came to be”
“ignoring that Modula-2 came out already in 1978, designed for systems programming and fixing Pascal initial flaws”
“using both for a while sure made me a better programmer”
“what we lost leaving behind languages like Modula-2 and Object Pascal”
“After Pascal Niklaus Wirth designed Modula-2 and then Oberon which is even tidier.”
“a total architecture manifestation that Pascal (nor Modula) could ever reach”
“we get people amazed to rediscover Modula-2, Object Pascal compiler execution speed”
“It was useful for teaching core concepts, but very limited use in terms of finding a job.”
“All those limitations were sorted out in 1978 with Modula-2 and open arrays”
“Modula-2 was born into a time when 8-bit char sets with upper- and lowercase letters were common place”
“being the language Wirth actually designed for systems stuff”
“I would faster get back to Modula-2 or Object Pascal.”
“"Explicit casts only" worked fine in Modula-2”
“The Modula I compiler wasn't very space-efficient.”
“Given the restrictions of the day, all three were incredible.”
“Modula-2 / Objective Pascal like safety was great during the last century”
“Modula-2 like safety is still better than C will ever be”
“the successor, Modula-2, was a hugely influential language too”
“assuming that is stretching it”
“Some of the things you listed (dangling else, variant records, Wirth has fixed in Modula-2 or Oberon)”
“Nowadays you can enjoy it on GCC, as it is now an officially supported frontend”
“I learned first on Pascal & Modula-2”
“except we know better 40 years later for the use cases they still had no answer for.”
“I found myself being annoyed by small features.”
“the whole of intro was "get Kim King's Modula-2 book"”
“Everyone seemed to pick up the language just fine.”
“Especially it's fibres/coroutine features.”
“Heap memory handling in Pascal, Modula-2, Ada, is much safer than C”
“I've long agreed with her assessment”
“alongside languages like Modula-2 and Object Pascal”
“The first thing that annoys me is the requirement of the original 1982 specification to capitalize all keywords.”
“Algol 68 and Modula-2 are getting more contributions than Go”
“My criteria is being as safe as Modula-2 and Object Pascal, as bare minimum.”
“Modula-2 was already available, taking care of those pain points, designed for systems programming”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.