# Uiua

20 Hacker News commenters recommended Uiua and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as an easy entry to array languages, with a visual, interactive tutorial and fun audio and graphics. Critics doubt it suits large projects.

## Why people recommend it

- Easiest entry into array languages (3 comments): "I believe Uiua is an excellent one to look at first. It's simpler than the others you mentioned without sacrificing any power" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46726894)) "Definitely a language of choice for getting into array languages in my opinion." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47981719)) "It is by far the easiest way to learn an array based language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898145))
- Visual, interactive, satisfying learning experience (2 comments): "Making the learning experience so visual and interactive makes getting into the language exceptionally satisfying right from the start" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49139844)) "Just started going through the tutorial, and it is, indeed, mega-cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45908062))
- Compact, elegant solutions (2 comments): ""thinking in arrays" helps me come up with more elegant solutions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45890796)) "it is amazing how compact the solutions are" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100674))
- Audio and graphics capabilities (2 comments): "Uiua has the capability to do audio and graphics/animations and scratches my array/stack itch." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970883)) "It's very ergonomic, and has awesome and fun facilities for audio and video rendering!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275967))

## What people warn about

- Glyph syntax is hard to read (2 comments): "I like the idea of glyphs but it does not seem to mix well with the above use of the word tacit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47015004)) "extremely cool but completely incomprehensible language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906788))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [J programming language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/j-programming-language.md): 23 recommend
- [BQN](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bqn.md): 11 recommend
- [K programming language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/k-programming-language.md): 11 recommend
- [kdb+ q](https://hackerapproved.com/p/q.md): 7 recommend
- [l runtime for k and q](https://hackerapproved.com/p/l.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Uiua", https://hackerapproved.com/p/uiua/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).