MUMPS 76 interpreter
Programming language interpreter in Developer tools
Recommended for a faithful, simple, procedural implementation of the original 1976 MUMPS standard, preserving how it felt. Critics warn it is dated and a poor choice for learners.
Recommended for a faithful, simple, procedural implementation of the original 1976 MUMPS standard, preserving how it felt. Critics warn it is dated and a poor choice for learners.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Simple, readable, procedural code
“MUMPS code is more readable than most languages, it's very simple and procedural.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “There are tons of problems with this, but the simplicity is comfy.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Rethinking Database Programming” “MUMPS is easy to read, understand and maintain when written well.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” Well-designed system and concepts
“It is a neat language but even more so a neat overall system and bag of concepts”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “It seems very well thought out”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” Still runs real systems
“many MUMPS based systems are still in operation and maintenance today”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “massive hospitals with thousands of patients run on MUMPS”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” Fun to implement
“Implementing this was a lot of fun, but the lexer was a real challenge.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: A faithful MUMPS 76 anniversary implementation – the original NoSQL DB” “Implementing this was a lot of fun”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: A faithful MUMPS 76 anniversary implementation – the original NoSQL DB”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor career choice for newcomers
“I would definitely not suggest COBOL or MUMPS to a 20 year old”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “What most histories get wrong about MUMPS's first standard” “You won’t be able to learn the industry best practices or the modern tools, because MUMPS predates them”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “What most histories get wrong about MUMPS's first standard” “The opportunity cost of working with MUMPS is enormous, particularly for someone early in their career.”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “What most histories get wrong about MUMPS's first standard” Widely called terrible language design
“As a programming language, it’s truly terrible in ways that languages like COBOL and FORTRAN are not.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Launch HN: Hypercubic (YC F25) – AI for COBOL and Mainframes” “how terrible it is to work with in the 2000s”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “feels worse than both raw asm and apl”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” Legacy code is hard to escape
“there's so much legacy code written in the old style that you have to learn to read and write it anyway”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “The MUMPS 76 Primer – anniversary edition” “legacy stuff runs on MUMPS which is equally old and arguably even worse”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station”
What people said
24 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“legacy stuff runs on MUMPS which is equally old and arguably even worse”
“There are tons of problems with this, but the simplicity is comfy.”
“The opportunity cost of working with MUMPS is enormous, particularly for someone early in their career.”
“I would definitely not suggest COBOL or MUMPS to a 20 year old”
“You won’t be able to learn the industry best practices or the modern tools, because MUMPS predates them”
“I wanted to build an interpreter just for the original 1976 standard to preserve how it felt and worked.”
“Those unfamiliar with M/MUMPS are not aware of some of the built in features that have not been adopted by other platforms.”
“It seems very well thought out”
“feels worse than both raw asm and apl”
“no thanks to the stringly typing”
“how MUMPS was as much better language than basic”
“there's so much legacy code written in the old style that you have to learn to read and write it anyway”
“Did they really have to use KILL as the word to delete a variable? Especially as it's used in hospitals?”
“MUMPS is easy to read, understand and maintain when written well.”
“MUMPS code is more readable than most languages, it's very simple and procedural.”
“many MUMPS based systems are still in operation and maintenance today”
“how terrible it is to work with in the 2000s”
“massive hospitals with thousands of patients run on MUMPS”
“stuck around with it for the next dozen years, probably longer than sensible”
“It is a neat language but even more so a neat overall system and bag of concepts”
“Implementing this was a lot of fun”
“There are pre-compiled versions of my MUMPS 76 interpreter in case you want to play with it.”
“Implementing this was a lot of fun, but the lexer was a real challenge.”
“As a programming language, it’s truly terrible in ways that languages like COBOL and FORTRAN are not.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.