Ask HN: What languages deploy and are also themselves standalone executables?

  • If your goal is just to produce a single file that is equivalent to a large number of files and a single executable, I would suggest you look at AppImage(https://appimage.org/) you can make almost anything into an AppImage from any language, although it is not always easy to setup(check out the packaging guide https://docs.appimage.org/packaging-guide/index.html).

    > The key idea of the AppImage format is one app = one file

    From the website

  • Can you define "standalone" executables and "deploy"? They can mean different things depending on context, for example if you mean a single statically linked executable (rare) or an application bundle that packages dependencies, etc

  • Factor fits what you're asking for, I think. It doesn't seem to be all that common for compiled languages to be designed "monolithically" with IDE and compiler as one package.

  • Smalltalk

  • Common Lisp