# Rhombus

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Rhombus and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Racket-based language with Python-like infix syntax and powerful macros, recommended for readable, extensible programming. Caveat: significant indentation and rough edges.

## Why people recommend it

- Python-like readable syntax (4 comments): "it's basically an infix, Python-like syntax on top of Racket" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530542)) "I like the Python-like indentation syntax of Rhombus" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952850)) "all the power of Racket in a Python-like syntax" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48240217))
- Powerful macros and extensibility (4 comments): "The page does get around to making it clear that there is a huge focus on macros, which is something, but it takes a while to get there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48659905)) "The customizable aspect being an open-compiler API that is accessible to a wide audience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337621)) "If you want the extensibility of Lisp with a readable syntax Rhombus is worth a go" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952844))
- Easy to use and customizable (3 comments): "Rhombus is easy to use and uniquely customizable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325385)) "Uniquely extensible and easy to learn syntax." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952949)) "easy to use and uniquely customizable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546271))
- Promising first impressions and tooling (4 comments): "Rhombus looks promising in terms of tooling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329722)) "It looks like a fun language in any case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48660454)) "Rhombus looks really nice at first glance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326152))

## What people warn about

- Rough edges and unfinished feel (2 comments): "there are still a few rough corners to fix" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657965)) "I can only attest to the jank." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49346248))
- Significant whitespace causes tab problems (2 comments): "It‘s a source of problems with mismatched tabs/spaces being used for indentation between team members for fairly little upside." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653627)) "Adding significant whitespace to a new language feels like a bad choice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653358))
- Documentation hard to follow for macros (2 comments): "The page does get around to making it clear that there is a huge focus on macros, which is something, but it takes a while to get there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48659905)) "has nobody ever read the documentation through slowly, before publishing?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48658170))

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