# Red programming language

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Red programming language and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for powerful DSL creation, native AOT compilation and homoiconic design; critics note it is incomplete compared with Rebol and lacks self-bootstrapping.

## Why people recommend it

- Good for building DSLs (3 comments): "red's ability to create powerful DSLs without having to parse everything manually is very interesting here" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48768645)) "it can AOT compile to native, it's homoiconic, it has a built-in Parse dialect" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48751070)) "really interesting language and seemingly a good fit for an internal shell DSL" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48764773))
- Seen as an interesting language (2 comments): "i actually find red in particular one of the more interesting languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48752661)) "Red does look like one of the better candidates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48753558))

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