This darklang project has been going on 5 years now. From my memory everyone quit or was laid off except the founder, who has been working on it as a one man band. But since the Israeli conflict he has publicly called out the VC industry and has become a sort of political warrior:
Overall I would stick to a normal language like Python over what this project is. It’s too ambitious for one person and it has all this other hair on it.
"At this point, the Darklang team is composed of Paul (the founder), myself (Stachu), and Feriel. As of the start of the year, Paul has stepped away to focus on Tech for Palestine. While focused on TFP, he continues to act as an advisor for Darklang as much as he has the capacity for."
> he has publicly called out the VC industry and has become a sort of political warrior
These violent warriors challenging status quo and established norms: Only if they were obedient decent appropriate conformists, my world would be so much nicer.
Front-and-center political takes (like a #FreePalestine and blog link at the very top of https://darklang.com/) are not something I expect with the software I choose to use. It's a strange thing and makes me less likely to embrace an already risky, experimental software.
> Front-and-center political takes ... It's a strange thing
Nah, it isn't. The same way it isn't strange that Google and Microsoft CEOs repeatedly visit Israel and praise its occupying forces for its "innovations" and "resilience" due to the "unique challenges" their neighbors pose (pay no attention to the oppression), making the desert bloom (pay no attention to the graveyards), providing them with opportunities to invest in the Startup Nation. If not, how many times have you felt "less likely to embrace" software from these companies?
> makes me less likely to embrace
Completely at ease with actual genocidal rhetoric on Israeli tech twitter (see tweets by PHP's creator Zeev Suraski or by OpenAI's Tal Broda, for example), but a banner for freedom... that's a step too far.
Astonishing how things nauseatingly repulsive don't offend but seemingly innocuous things do. Says a lot.
That you assume anyone who is even slightly hesitant to agree with you is a bad person is exactly the reason political statements, as good-intentioned as they may be, put people off.
I don’t need an extra risk when choosing a tool. A divisive political statement, like it or not, is an extra risk.
I agree with your point in general and dislike political drama which is often a headache, but people are starving and dying and being held hostage out there... so I don't really think this is the time where that sentiment is appropriate.
Some decades from now, a gesture like this might be seen as similar to Bram's fundraising for Uganda (Vim's start-up screen) which is worthy of appreciation too. Most likely, a negative reaction to this is because it's an emotionally charged topic in the news and on social media.
I'm sure their great people and they're entitled to their opinion, but this language looks like it wants full control of your entire tech stack. And if they one day decided to do some political activism and run malicious code that targets you or delete their codebase, you would be 100% at their mercy. It wouldn't be the first time it happened either, like with the npm libraries left-pad, faker.js, and node-ipc.
I think reasonable people can disagree and debate about what is happening in Israel. It's not a topic I want a banner splashed across the top when I'm considering a new language or SaaS product.
I don't know if posting to social media and making websites about the realities of a conflict make Paul a "violent warrior", but I guess that's what passes for OK commentary on HN now?
Honestly Paul is one of the last remaining people I look up to in this industry after 16 years (jesus). I've always had a soft spot for the work they're doing at darklang, but to also know the people behind it are kindred spirits is really warming.
https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/
Overall I would stick to a normal language like Python over what this project is. It’s too ambitious for one person and it has all this other hair on it.