Gleam (programming language)

The smallest, kindest typed functional language here. Gleam has no null values and no exceptions, a short list of features you can hold in your head in a weekend, and compiler errors that read like a patient colleague explaining what went wrong. It runs on the same Erlang virtual machine as Elixir and can also compile to JavaScript, so one language covers a server and a browser project. It is young, so the package ecosystem is thinner than Elixir's and you will sometimes call Erlang or Elixir libraries instead. The pace of improvement makes up for a lot: Gleam 1.19 compiles to Erlang's abstract format instead of Erlang source text, which cut compile times and lets every generated line map back to your Gleam source.