l: A new runtime for k and q

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• Hacker News
• These languages are very niche, isn't it? Unless you are interested in getting a job with specific companies, I don't see why you would learn them.
  by mctwo
• More niche than many yes - but there’s something about learning an array language that changes how you look at programming in general. And for the better. Of course, the places where these things are used are generally very well paying positions. They tend to be areas with a very high amount of data that is incredibly valuable.
  by jloveless
• We'd like to see some benchmarks against open and closed k interpreters please! I'm curious how well a vibe coded k/q interpreter stands up to Shakti or whatever Mr. Whitney is letting out the door right now.
  by vessenes
• https://github.com/l-labs/master-benchmark/tree/master/resul...
  by jloveless
• Definitely not a vibe coded language - I really wish the ai models were more helpful - but I should do a write up of the assembly analysis (and asm2vec). ATW is working on even more impressive things at the moment! Well beyond the scope of an interpreter itself.
  by jloveless
• K/Q and vibecoded doesn't sounds good. I used Q with KDB+ for trading and we should ensure to have the right data / calculus as tiny errors might have huge impact ($).
  by Colegno
• We’ve used versions of L in production for approaching year 10
  by jloveless
• Quite the cryptic tytle. Were they trying to save tokens?
  by carra
• benchmarks at https://github.com/l-labs unlike klong/ngn/bqn et al (which are GREAT) this has the goal of full production database compatibility (and full language compatibility).
  by jloveless
• q is the programming language underpinning kdb+ by Kx Systems - often claimed (by Kx) to be "the fastest database in the world". Possibly also the most expensive? L is an independent implementation of a q interpreter. To those who reluctantly commercially license kdb+ - this will be a welcome alternative.
  by jazza68
• Absolutely and given Kx is now private equity owned and are in the customer-squeezing phase of the acquisition, this is very welcome indeed.
  by dintech
• Not sure why all the hate (sure site may be vibecoded, not all of us are front-end masters and it's at least not spartan)... I've always found k to be fascinating, and cool idea to try and roll a new one. Wish it were wholly open source, but cool to have a new variant that seems to bench well.
  by zacharynewton
• Sure the site, the articles, the program. But sure lets just trust that the author who can't write knows how to benchmark software
  by casey2
• if you k you k ;-) for the uninitiated, this looks like some wallstreet quant's new startup. Initially I thought it was the rebrand of shakti, Arthur Whites most recent rewrite of an array language. It's purpose built tooling for computing tick data for financial markets, but the best way I can describe it is codegolf for experienced programmers who don't want to give up the keyboard. these tools combine dataaccess and the ability to compute against that data with as few abstractions as possible.
  by chews
• First, this is an incredible achievement. I hope that the author(s) can monetize this project. I guess they can try to undercut kx.com's current insanely high subscription costs. Is that a goal? I ask because I cannot find the source code for the project, only downloadable compiled binaries. (No hate on that -- you are free to make lots of money from your hard work and apparent genius!)

  Second, in my personal experience, most quants refer to the platform as "kdb+", which uses the languages q (directly), k (indirectly), and qSQL. Is there a reason why the website landing page does not mention kdb+? I assume this is intentional.

  by throwaway2037
• intentional. I consider kdb/kdb+ to be understood as the KX products - but L runs the same database style functionality (the qSQL is essentially just sugar atop the q/k code. Most of which is written in k [or C in L for a number of components])
  by jloveless
• Closed source (and vibe-coded) software, especially for a language runtime, is a non-starter for many people including myself. But proprietary license is actually common in the APL and K family of languages. They are fascinating though, and plenty of free/open implemenations exist, for example: https://ktye.github.io/
  by lioeters
• the author of the site makes no secret that the website is vibecoded. You're unfairly extrapolating that the product itself is vibe-coded (hard to do unless he is a time-traveller). And you're missing the point of the unique advantages that L offers wrt computation on compressed data.
  by jazza68
• Quite cool, but for a new runtime of an existing language it might make sense to compare to, y'know, the other[0] runtimes of that language? Even if one has to omit the best, closed ones for lack of access / permission to benchmark?

  [0]: https://k.miraheze.org/wiki/Running_K

  by kristjansson
• https://github.com/l-labs/master-benchmark
  by jloveless
• yeah the site's clearly vibecoded and isn't opensource, but i also think this is a genuinely interesting design space and more people should be building in it. APL (https://www.dyalog.com/), BQN (https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN/), J/Jd (https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Jd/Overview), Klong (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10586872), Kerf (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9782520), RayforceDB (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45889607), k/q (https://kx.com/) glad there's a new entrant.
  by enduku
• ... DuckDB.

  Columnar databases are array languages, after all.

  by quotemstr
• I hope OP can survive the lawsuits though, the K authors are infamously litigious.
  by Onavo
• What's the problem if a site is vibecoded? We will be seeing it more often, I recon. Let's get used to it. On the other hand, perhaps a disclaimer is in order.
  by kensai
• The bottom of the page states:

  "Site by Claude. Runtime by hand"

  I think that's completely acceptable.

  by hoppp
• I've recently tested BQN on ClickBench (a benchmark for OLAP databases), and the results are not great: https://benchmark.clickhouse.com/#system=+N|liH&type=-&machi...

  If anyone is curious how queries in this language look, you can see it here: https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickBench/pull/939/changes#di...

  by zX41ZdbW
• I vibecoded https://punkx.org/apl/learn.html [1] its good slow entry into gnu-apl, at least it got me to be able to make tictactoe, vibecoded or not, it helped me to start.

  I am amazed how quickly APL changed the way I think.

  Also strongly recommend watching Aaron Hsu on youtube.

  There is no better time to re-learn programming, try APL, Forth, LISP, z80 machine code, UXN TAL, just try new things.

  "Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."

  [1]: https://github.com/jackdoe/gnu-apl-wasm source of the repl and learn playground and also how to compile gnu apl to wasm (vibecoded)

  by jackdoe