[HN Gopher] Nova Programming Language
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Nova Programming Language
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 71 points
Date : 2025-12-08 15:03 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (nova-lang.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (nova-lang.net)
| escanda wrote:
| I guess this sometime replace org-mode extensively. The idea is
| sound. The implementation looks good.
|
| For instance, I love org-mode export capabilities to standard
| formats such as pdfs and other kinds of documents. It makes it
| real easy to export some formulae or docs for some feature.
|
| Plus org-mode agenda is just superior and awesome.
| almosthere wrote:
| Did you have 3 seconds to see that there is a Nova code editor
| out there? (edit: this comment is about name confusion)
| escanda wrote:
| Most likely has a language server thus interoperable with most
| editors out there. Some config might be necessary though.
| casuallyblue wrote:
| No LSP yet, but we do have a tree-sitter grammar
| airstrike wrote:
| _> Please don 't complain about tangential annoyances--e.g.
| article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button
| breakage. They're too common to be interesting._
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| gkbrk wrote:
| Who would confuse a programming language and a text editor?
| jibal wrote:
| Even if that mattered, you could express it without being rude.
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| Some code snippets here: https://nova-lang.net/introduction-to-
| nova/sight/
|
| EDIT: seems to be open source, just isn't mentioned on the
| website https://forge.nouveau.community/nova
| oersted wrote:
| Where did you get this? Of the three implementations I see here
| all three have available sources, Myte and Serpens don't have
| licenses, and Pyra has an Unlicense open-source license.
|
| https://nova-lang.net/implementations/
| AyyEye wrote:
| Their forgejo instance has an interpreter in go
| https://forge.nouveau.community/nova/ni
| arniemiller wrote:
| Nice. The learn page reminded me of https://learnxinyminutes.com/
| which I really liked as a quick way to get a tour of a language.
| oersted wrote:
| Huh...
|
| In https://nova-lang.net/implementations/
|
| > Pyra: Runs on Lua
|
| > Serpens: Runs on Python
| BoiledCabbage wrote:
| While I'm not clear on how it scales to more broader problems,
| it's nice to see a somewhat novel idea in programming languages
| vs the same rehash of algol derived languages.
|
| I do think I've seen something similar. A language mainly driven
| off of pattern matching, but I don't recall where. Does anyone
| know of prior art? Or is this completely novel?
| MisterTea wrote:
| Prolog comes to mind with its facts and rules matching.
| shrubble wrote:
| SNOBOL, SPITBOL and the Icon and Unicon languages are heavy
| with pattern matching.
|
| There's a book on "Snobol for the Humanities" but it doesn't
| have a strong focus on UI; everything at the time it was
| written used a simple terminal interface like a REPL with no
| advanced terminal handling.
| jibal wrote:
| I wrote some SNOBOL IV programs back in the day and met Ralph
| Griswold when he visited the UCLA Computer Club. Fun language
| with very interesting ideas. Looking into Unicon is on my
| list of things to do.
| graypegg wrote:
| June's (developer from the team page on Nova's site) personal
| website [0] points to this other interesting looking pattern-
| matching-based language she made called Modal [1] which seems
| to work on a tree rather than named LIFO stacks
|
| [0] https://june.codes/
|
| [1] https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/modal
| forgotpwd16 wrote:
| So that's why I found the username and language familiar. Was
| exploring this site few days ago. Besides this page, there's
| also one on Vera[0], what appears to be Nova's predecessor
| (at the end there's even link pointing to a defunct wiki
| under Nova's domain calling it _Vera wiki_ ).
|
| [0]: https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/vera.html
| ModernMech wrote:
| https://witheve.com
| ajkjk wrote:
| ahem, by law programming languages must have code samples on the
| front page
| sema4hacker wrote:
| Yes, after wandering through a few pages trying to find an
| example that actually did something, I gave up and moved on.
| picometer wrote:
| The code block after "Welcome" is the code sample. Very
| literate.
| macintux wrote:
| A caption for that sample, indicating it _is_ one, would
| help.
| graypegg wrote:
| Is it meant to do something? It doesn't follow the same
| cause/effect syntax as the tutorial, and plopping that
| welcome block into https://playground.nova-lang.net/ doesn't
| seem to do anything. I assume it's the note taking part of
| the syntax?
| casuallyblue wrote:
| Its not necessarily meant to do anything on its own. The
| text there _is_ the same cause /effect syntax, just with
| slightly different delimiters. If you were to include the
| fact it needs to execute for the rule to work on after the
| code, like: "|| - Welcome to Nova! -", then the rule would
| execute.
| graypegg wrote:
| OH! Ok that makes more sense. `:` from the tutorial is
| `-` or `~`, because it's the first char after the pipe.
|
| I do lose track after that though, in my brain, It looks
| like the entire second part after the second pipe
| character should be just one long fact assigned to the
| stack between tildes, but I think it's adding each one of
| the bullet-prefixed lines to it.
| yumaikas wrote:
| That is one of a couple syntactical shorthands, explained
| a small bit here: https://nova-lang.net/introduction-to-
| nova/sight/#sometime-y...
| casuallyblue wrote:
| yeah, the "." is a syntax for putting multiple things on
| the same stack
|
| [0] https://nova-lang.net/introduction-to-
| nova/sight/#sometimes-...
| user2342 wrote:
| It's there, but yes the home page is very confusing. I lost
| interest very fast.
| guywithahat wrote:
| I found some example code on their github
| https://github.com/dan-online/Nova
| geenat wrote:
| I like the idea of a "markdown for logic", with transpiliation to
| lots of different easy backends such as javascript.
|
| Not convinced the language would actually be useful, but I like
| the ideas for portability.
| satiric wrote:
| This feels like prolog, although I don't remember much about
| prolog apart from writing about 3 lines to get a CS degree. What
| puts this apart from prolog? (And are there, you know, reasons
| for using the language?)
| yumaikas wrote:
| (Nova dev here)
|
| Nova's execution model is a lot friendlier to implement vs
| Prolog, for one.
|
| One big reason reach for Nova are when I have something -very-
| state-machine shaped. It is quite good at that.
|
| I'll try to come back later with more explanations
| ModernMech wrote:
| When you say "friendlier" does that also mean "less
| powerful"? Prolog's execution engine is very capable, so does
| Nova give up some of that power in exchange for friendliness
| or does it somehow retain it?
| 155231 wrote:
| iker
| LennyHenrysNuts wrote:
| What's it for?
| Koshkin wrote:
| Prolog-style programming
| forgotpwd16 wrote:
| Some examples are available in the repos of Serpens/Myte[0][1]
| (Nova in-Python interpreter/to-JS compiler).
|
| [0]:
| https://forge.nouveau.community/nouveau/serpens/src/branch/m...
|
| [1]:
| https://forge.nouveau.community/yumaikas/myte/src/branch/mai...
| seg_lol wrote:
| Is this literate Prolog for Org Mode?
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