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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

E0

24 alternatives to Element 0 – A small embeddable Lisp written in Zig

Hi everyone, I've made a new experimental Lisp dialect (named "Element 0"). It comes with an interpreter written in Zig and a small standard library. The project is open source, and feedback is welcome. Project's GitHub repo: https://github.com/habedi/element-0

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1IW

    The book page links to a blog post that explains how I got about it (and has a link to sample content), but the TL&DR is that I could not find a lot of books that were on "our" history _and_ were larded with technical details. So I set about writing one, and some five years later I'm happy to share the result. I think it's one of the few "computer history" books that has tons of code, but correct me if I'm wrong (I wrote this both to tell a story and to learn :-)). My favorite languages are Smalltalk and Lisp, but as an Emacs user, I've been using the latter for much longer and for my…

    Feb 2026 · berksoft.ca · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    A tiny, embeddable language implemented in ANSI C. Contribute to rxi/fe development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

    2011 · gist.github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    An experimental minimal chat written in Common Lisp - ryukinix/lisp-chat

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    A minimalist type-inferred programming language with procedural macro support - murisi/L2

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    I built zli, a batteries-included CLI framework for Zig with a focus on DX and composability. Key features: - Typed flags with default values and help output - Rich formatting, and layout support - Command trees with isolated execution logic - It’s designed to feel good to use, not just to work. - Built for real-world CLI apps, not toy examples. Would love feedback, feature ideas, or thoughts from other Zig devs. repo here: https://github.com/xcaeser/zli

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7ZB

    I created this a year or so ago but recently made updates and I thought people might like to know that it exists. I made this to easily send links or text to someone else verbally, like over the phone or over voice chat (which is what I made it for). The goal is to be able to tell the link to someone else without being ambiguous or needing to spell it out, so I grabbed the words off a Grade 5 level dictionary. I understand that the domain itself doesn’t qualify but I’m trying to get a better domain.

    2013 · zigg.be · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Hi HN, author here. Happy to answer any questions. I had an itch to make a lisp like language that was a thin layer on top JavaScript. Something that could leverage the thriving ecosystem that exists around JavaScript. It's brittle, hot off the oven. Besides being a fan of parenthesis, I think macros fill in a gap that the JavaScript ecosystem today fills in with one-off compilers, bundler plugins and such. Macros can't do everything, but for example I think they have the potential to enable things like JSX, Solid and Svelte style libraries. Take the tour to get a feel for what it can do and…

    2023 · daklang.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    I believe the best way to learn a language is by doing an in-depth project. This is my first Zig project intended for learning the ropes on publishing a Zig package. It turns out to be quite solid and performant. It might be a bit over-engineered. This little library is packed with the following features: - Building dependency graph from dependency data. - Performing topological sort on the dependency graph. - Generating dependence-free subsets for parallel processing. - Cycle detection and cycle reporting.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    A fast functional language based on two level type theory - ehatti/peridot

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Lisp is Lisp. Lua is Lua. Lisp and Lua as One. Contribute to meric/l2l development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12
  13. 13

    I created this because sometimes I want more than rlwrap but less than emacs. icl aims to hit that middle sweet spot. It's a terminal application with context-aware auto-complete, an interactive object inspector, auto-indentation, syntax colouring, persistent history, and much more. It uses sly to communicate with the child lisp process and aims to be compatible with any sly-supporting implementation. I hope others find it useful!

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Looking for feedback on the API, happy hacking!

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Next-level syntax for C-like languages :). Contribute to kiselgra/c-mera development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    :aquarius: A Lisp-esque, JS-interpreted scripting language - tsortwehttam/runiq

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    A lisp-looking language with interpreter and compiler to JS - mcapodici/badlanguage

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Embedded Lisp Interpreter. Contribute to codr7/eli development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hey HN, We’re excited to announce Zant v0.1, an open-source TinyML SDK built in Zig, designed to optimize and deploy neural networks on resource-constrained devices. Unlike existing solutions, Zant focuses on performance, portability, and ease of integration, making it a strong alternative for anyone working on Edge AI and embedded ML. Why Zant? Most TinyML frameworks are either too high-level (requiring bloated runtimes) or too low-level (requiring extensive manual optimization). Zant bridges the gap by offering: - A lightweight but powerful code generation system to translate ML models…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hi HN! I kept hearing about Lisp and why it was special but didn't have a great place to start. I wanted something self-contained that helped me develop intuition rather than fluency. My hope is this is helpful for casual programmers, professionals from other fields who interact with code, or engineers who haven't had much exposure to interpreters or compilers. Hope this helps anyone else who's curious about getting a sense of Lisp and what makes it special with a limited time investment! Feedback or other cool Lisp things welcome :)

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    a lisp implemented in Javascript (not very useful!) - jes5199/brid.js

    2011 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hyphen - An elegant custom element base class. Contribute to crisdosaygo/- development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23
  24. 24

    Hey HN, I wanted to share the new online playground for Salt (https://salt-lang.dev/playground/), a sovereign systems language designed for high-performance, distributed workloads where paying an "abstraction tax" is no longer acceptable. We started building Salt to bridge the gap between the raw power of manual pointer arithmetic and the safety guarantees of modern high-level languages. The architecture relies on an MLIR-based backbone and a Z3-powered "formal shadow," and the design is rooted in three main pillars: Fast Enough: The target is to stay within 20% of C's…

    Jul 2026 · salt-lang.dev · its alternatives →

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