[throwaway328]

Request to HN mods: that the link be changed from

https://www.ponylang.io/discover/

to

https://www.ponylang.io/

On the second link, as another commenter mentions, the "Try it in your browser" is one click away, near the top. On the first link, it's two clicks away, but the first of those clicks is a perhaps surprising backwards-lick to get back to the homepage...

Unfortunately, many of the diehard language enthusiasts here seem to be getting quite worked up over how inaccessible the code examples are. Instead of being able to immediately see the syntax so they can rush back here to make insightful and educated comments on how that syntax compares to $their_fave_lang, they are forced to spend up to 4 or even 5 minutes reading documents clearly describing the design of the language, and being obliged to click on their mouses up to 10 times even in some cases.

If a member of the Pony team sees this: even though it's more than a tad ridiculous and you have in fact made a lovely website with loads of clear information, maybe consider adding the "Try it in your browser" link as another option in the burger menu thing on the left. That way it follows everyone around, and you never have to suffer a HN discussion getting needlessly derailed by the resident PL fanatics.

[Mawr]

> Instead of being able to immediately see the syntax so they can rush back here to make insightful and educated comments on how that syntax compares to $their_fave_lang, they are forced to spend up to 4 or even 5 minutes reading documents clearly describing the design of the language, and being obliged to click on their mouses up to 10 times even in some cases.

Welcome to interface design! Your way of thinking could not be more wrong if you tried :)

How buying stuff on say Amazon works:

1. Click on picture of a car

2. Click "Buy Now"

How it would look like if we apply yours/the Pony website designers' approach:

1. Read a 10 page description of what the car is

2. Click on a link buried on page 12 that lets you buy the thing

Which approach gets more sales?

[macgillicu]

> 1. Read a 10 page description of what the car is

> 2. Click on a link buried on page 12 that lets you buy the thing

But the link to the playground is on page 1, the home page, and not page 12? So your whole argument is moot, since it seems the Pony people obeyed at least this part of your interface design dogma.

Or, in other words, "you could not be more wrong if you tried :)".

The issue here was that page 2 was linked in the title, so everyone was getting to page 2, and not clicking back to page 1, where the playground was, and instead clicking forward and getting lost.

And all that aside, as another commenter said, even if the playground was hidden behind the most fiendish of mazes -- perhaps not every programming language is interested in attracting the kind of people who think every corner of the universe must mirror Amazon's approach to "sales".

[Timwi]

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'd be all that interested in a programming language that is focused on scoring sales.

[tomsmeding]

Personally, I would say that if one is a real PL fanatic, one is more interested in the semantics than the syntax. :)

The problem with the linked docs on the Pony website is not that it doesn't explain the semantics (it does!) but that it seems to be written at a pace appropriate for someone who has no clue what static types even are. [1] Give a concise demonstration of the syntax and the semantics, even if that means that the latter will use terminology that not everyone will understand. Then the full tutorial is there for the details.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44722779

[dang]

Ok, I've done that and put the other links at the top.

[macgillicu]

Top modding, I couldn't believe how much discussion was being wasted on trivial matters. And for such a cool-looking language!