Esoteric language zoo
2019-12-27 — 2019-12-27
Wherein the reader is guided through arcane tongues, from Iversonian APL kin and Whitney’s k and b to Brainfuck’s homomorphic encrypted implementation and INTERCAL’s COME FROM jest.
If you want to find more about the weird ends of this hobby, see retrocomputing or the esolang wiki.
The page exists mostly because I don’t think about these things often enough to remember their names but occasionally need to know them as punchlines.
1 Iverson and Whitney
Arthur Whitney is I think the creator of the odd, ill-explained k and b languages, which make impressive claims about performance but unimpressive claims about community, support, and longevity. I think they are in the APL lineage as created by Kenneth E. Iverson.
2 Pure
A cute, usable language. See pure.
3 Brainfuck
The hoary old classic of esoteric languages, about which I am no authority. However, check out this homomorphic encrypted brainfuck machine.
4 INTERCAL
Blogged so I can remember its name. INTERCAL is that perverted joke language I always forget the name of. Famous for its COME FROM construct to avoid the harms of GOTO.