Author of INTERCAL compiler mentions Discordia

[Triple Zero]

some sort of update from the guy that wrote the first INTERCAL compiler* in 1990, I'm only halfway reading it, but when he mentioned Discordia, I figured the 2 or 3 people on this site that have actually ever heard about INTERCAL might enjoy it:

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=2491

For those that don't know, INTERCAL is a joke programming language. A programming language designed to be as much unlike any other programming language. First time I read the manual describing the language, I thought it was a funny curiosity, hilarious even. Second time, for some reason I got it in my mind I was gonna write an actual program in it, and started reading with that intention. I closed the manual after a few pages in a fit of disgust and Lovecraftian horror.


And, yes I know about other funky programming languages like BeFunge, Malebolg, BRAINF*CK etc. INTERCAL was the first. I'll admit Malebolg is harder to program in, but then that was its design goal. I don't know if they even figured out yet if it's got universal computing capabilities (meaning it can theoretically simulate any other programming language, something that any semi-serious programming language can do).

Oh, one awesome language I came across a little while ago, which I hadn't heard about before, is called "Piet", named after Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondriaan. Computer programs written in Piet are not made of characters, but pixels, and resemble (or can resemble) the typical primary colours/black/white squares style paintings by Mondriaan.
IMO, the sample code page is more interesting than the language description page itself:
http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html
The best example (IMO) is the one with a big large red circle in it (abotu halfway through the page) that calculates an approximation of pi, literally by dividing a circular area by the radius twice. I say literally, because constants in this language are represented by a connected area of pixels of the same colour, the number of pixels is the constant. "Naturally, a more accurate value can be obtained by using a bigger program."



* also author of the open source manifesto The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

[Telarus]

What did he SAY about Discordia?

(OOh, thanks for something new, Trip... I'd heard about Brainf*ck)

[Triple Zero]

oh, just a mention:

A week of work later, I was even more nonplussed to discover that others had been doing serious work on the compiler while I wasn't looking. Notably, there was one Alex Smith (aka ais523, hail Eris, all hail Discordia!) a doughty Englishman who'd been shipping a descendant of my 2003 code since ..

Also there's a sort of eye-pyramid style icon at the top of the page.

I'm just chalking it up to the well-known connection between Discordia and oldskool hackers. I started the thread mostly because I know that ENKI is interested in alternative programming languages and therefore probably knows INTERCAL, and PeregrineBF likes to code BRAINF*CK (hence the last 2 letters in his/her name, as well as some various bits of BF code in his/her signature over the years) and I figured there were bound to be some other programming geeks that would enjoy it

If INTERCAL is new to you, check wikipedia on it btw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercal

Also I was not quite exaggerating with the Lovecraftian Horror ... It's really that bad, and it was the only way I could think to describe trying to wrench my brain around that ... thing.

[Triple Zero]

Finished reading the article. It's about how the author got a request from Donald Knuth (famous algorithmics guy, creator of TeX) for a bugfix in this crazy programming language's compiler. The author then proceeds to find ais523 (a Discordian, obviously) who had been developing bits on the INTERCAL compiler in the mean time, then together they go digging the dusty corners of the web for old versions of the compiler in order to recreate the changes repository of the project in a Git repository (a modern versioning system). Then he finds out some differences in Git-workflow between him and ais523, and proceeds to talk about the various merits and flaws of those.

I also updated the OP a littlebit.