Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Zrc, I tried making a Unix shell scripting language with Tcl syntax
Welp, second time posting this project! Bourne shell's ALGOL-inspired syntax seems a bit verbose, and while `rc` is quite nice, it lacks some features I'd prefer in a shell (this is probably by design). Though don't let the name I chose fool you, this shell is probably more related to `tcl` or `csh` than `rc`, except in some small places. It's been a while since my last post. Notable new features include a stack trace (via `caller`), `try`/`catch` (but only with user-supplied strings), `fc`, `disown`, login shell detection, and a shorter argv alias (`${argv number}` becomes `$number`).…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 2 we have checked on their own sites, 2 of them free or with a free tier.
- 1
Hi HN community, I’m Zach, founder and CEO of Warp, and am excited to show you Warp, a fast Rust-based terminal that’s easy to use and built for teams. As of today, Warp is in public beta and any Mac user can download it. It works with bash, zsh, and fish. The terminal’s teletype-like interface has made it hard for the CLI to thrive. After 20 years of programming, I still find it hard to copy a command’s output; I always forget how to use `tar`; and I always have to relearn how to move my cursor. To fix fundamental accessibility issues, I believe we need to start innovating on the terminal,…
2022 · warp.dev · its alternatives →
- 2GI
Hi all! I'm going into my freshman year, and figured that the best way to prepare for the intro to programming Racket course would be to implement my own garbage-collected, dynamically typed, functional programming language in C ;) Anyways... here's the repo: https://github.com/liam-ilan/crumb I started learning C over the summer, so I still have a whole lot to learn... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! :D
2023 · its alternatives →
- 3
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 →
- 4
Common rust command-line macros and utilities, to write shell-script like tasks in a clean, natural and rusty way - rust-shell-script/rust_cmd_lib
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
Yesterday, I found myself writing a little C throwaway script to test something out. That happens often enough to clutter my HOME and some other directories with these useless text files and binaries. So I thought that I can use a repl instead. Quick google search didn't find any good and tested solutions. So I wrote my own with help of a tcc compiler. Why POSIX Shell? Because it would be far too easy in a normal language (it'd probably take me ~10 minutes to rewrite this in Nim) and where is fun in that?
May 2026 · codeberg.org · its alternatives →
- 6CA
Compiler link: https://github.com/c3lang/c3c Docs: http://www.c3-lang.org This is my follow-up "Show HN" from roughly a year ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570). Since then the language design has evolved and the compiler has gotten much more solid. Assorted extra info: - The C3 name is a homage to the C2 language project (http://c2lang.org) which it was originally inspired by. - Although C3 mostly conforms to C syntax, the most obvious change is requiring `fn` in front of the functions. This is to simplify searching for…
2022 · its alternatives →
- 7
Redstart is a lightweight Lisp interpreter written in C++ with a focus on shell scripting. It lets you combine the expressive power of Lisp with the practicality of the Unix shell: you can run commands, capture output, pipe between processes, and still use Lisp syntax for logic and structure. Think of it as writing your shell scripts in Lisp instead of Bash.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
I originally was just messing with pi-autoresearch. Gave it a sample task to build the most portable coding agent. First cut was 6 KB of shell. Great for one-shots, unusable interactively. I was shocked it actually worked. Started building up -- adding features — but with a self-imposed rule: no new dependencies, and sub 500 LOC. This thing had to be truly portable. Just sh, curl, awk. System primitives only. Which means I did some genuinely disgusting things in awk, including JSON parsing and the OpenAI Responses tool loop with reasoning items carried across turns. It's now ~400 lines. In…
Apr 2026 · pu.dev · its alternatives →
- 9
Your wishes are my commands. Contribute to dylanjcastillo/shell-genie development by creating an account on GitHub.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
I wrote a lightweight scripting language that runs together with C. Specifically, it's a C library, you run it through a C function call, and it can callback your own C functions. Compiles to ~250 kB. No dependencies beyond the C standard library. Key language features: * Uses aliases not pointers, so it's memory-safe * Arrays are N-dimensional and resizable * Runs scripts or its own 'shell' * Error trapping * Methods, inheritance, etc. * Customizable syntax
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11
Write and execute code in an intuitive "shell" with autocompletion, for the Unity Editor. - GitHub - marijnz/unity-shell: Write and execute code in an intuitive "shell" with autocompletion, for the Unity Editor.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12
Funky takes shell functions to the next level by making them easier to define, more flexible, and more interactive. - bbugyi200/funky
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 13
Run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode on mobile and write code from your phone. Shellular gives you secure remote access to your dev machine: a real agent UI, terminal, files, Git, ports, and browser DevTools, all from your phone.
Jul 2026 · shellular.dev · its alternatives →
- 14
This is my side project for the past few months. I started it because I just learned about functional programming and at the same time want to write something cool in C. Web playground: https://leonw774.github.io/lreng
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15
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 →
- 16
This project is a tool for engineers who live in the terminal and are tired of losing their command history to ephemeral servers or fragmented `.bash_history` files. If you’re jumping between dozens of boxes, many of which might be destroyed an hour later, your "local memory" (the history file) is essentially useless. This tool builds a centralized, permanent brain for your shell activity, ensuring that a complex one-liner you crafted months ago remains accessible even if the server it ran on is long gone. The core mechanism wants to be a "zero-touch" capture that happens at the connection…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17
Hey HN! First time showing something here, but I've been furiously working over the holidays on Feather, a from scratch reimplementation of TCL designed for embedding in modern applications. It's starting out as a faithful reimplementation of TCL without I/O, OOP features, or coroutines. TCL has a special place in my heart because the syntax is so elegant for interactive use, and defining domain specific languages. My motiviation is twofold: faster feedback loops for AI, and moldable software for users. It turns out giving AI agents access to the runtime state of your program makes for…
Dec 2025 · feather-lang.dev · its alternatives →
- 18
Born out of my frustration with powershell’s slow startup and confusing syntax I have long wanted to build a shell and scripting language in .NET. I have been working on it for a long time and thanks to Claude, I was able to finally get it over the line. I daily drive it as my shell on Windows, and really happy with it so far. Please try it and let me know where it can improve!
Feb 2026 · jitzu.dev · its alternatives →
- 19
I rewrote the most common core string.h functions in pure C. I mostly did it to learn pointers and string. Would love to get any feedbacks:)
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
:aquarius: A Lisp-esque, JS-interpreted scripting language - tsortwehttam/runiq
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21
Hi everyone, GitHub's CodeQL is a powerful semantic code analysis engine for identifying vulnerabilities across codebases. We've extended CodeQL to support Solidity, the most popular programming language for smart contracts. CodeQL enables you to query code as though it were data, and it's open-source (OSS). You can check it out here: . The product page is available at . CodeQL has its own licensing model, which you can find at https://codeql.github.com/. TL;DR: CodeQL is free for research and open-source projects.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
Hi everyone! I built this because I wanted a little bit more organization around my Claude sessions, worktrees and plans while staying in the terminal and not relying on another SaaS tool. Since it's a command line tool, the added bonus is that Claude can use `td` directly. The td calendar was just a fun add-on but the Claude session stats have been pretty interesting! Let me know what you think!
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
Hi HN! I built a CLI tool called ShellTalk for macOS, Linux, and web (WebAssembly) that maps English text to the corresponding Bash commands. ShellTalk is written in Swift and available under the Apache 2.0 license on GitHub. I was inspired a few weeks ago after reading the Meta-Harness paper and seeing a tool called Hunch that did something similar using the Apple Foundation model. I often forget flag names and orders, but I wanted something that worked consistently. The 3B AFM worked surprisingly well with Hunch, but it felt slow and sometimes slight changes in what I wrote would result in…
Apr 2026 · barrasso.me · its alternatives →
- 24
It's quite limited but does the job, I invite anybody not aware of what cram tests are to give them a try, being on Unix with the original cram or Windows with this one ;)
Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Warp, a Rust-based terminal alternatives
- Going into freshman year, figured I should build an interpreter alternatives
- Interactive Common Lisp: An Enhanced REPL alternatives
- Using Rust to write shell-script like tasks alternatives
- Ced – C REPL in 50 lines of POSIX shell alternatives
- C3 – A C alternative that looks like C alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →