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Interview With Author of the First Spoof Language

Posted by Soulskill on from the spoof-language-real-beard dept.

An anonymous reader brings us Computerworld's interview with Don Woods, one of the creators of Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym (INTERCAL). INTERCAL and its documentation were created in 1972 as a parody of that era's languages and instruction manuals. Among other things, Woods had this to say: "We designed the language without too much trouble. Writing the manual took a while, especially for things like the circuit diagrams we included as nonsensical illustrations. The compiler itself actually wasn't too much trouble, given that we weren't at all concerned with optimising the performance of either the compiler or the compiled code. I admit I'm surprised at its longevity. Some of the jokes in the original work feel rather dated at this point. It helps that the language provides a place where people can discuss oddball features missing from other languages, such as the 'COME FROM' statement and operators that work in base 3."

13 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Bah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Intercal has nothing on Brainfuck. Brainfuck makes every other spoof programming language look like a joke. I'd write the Hello World! program here, but Slashdot's content filter doesn't support Brainfuck code.

    1. Re:Bah! by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 4, Funny

      Brainfuck is inherently crystal clear in comparison to HYPERTARD.

      It's a language created on the Amiga in the 1980s, named after hypercard, but completely unrelated. The only legal characters are whitespace. Tab, space, linefeed, carriage return etc.

    2. Re:Bah! by Tmack · · Score: 5, Funny
      The language you refer to is whitespace, as described and linked in a comment below as well.

      I would post "Hello World" written in it here, but the comment thingy refused to accept it: "Filter error: Please use less whitespace."

      tm

      --
      Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
    3. Re:Bah! by mobby_6kl · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your suggestion is laughable. There is only one acceptable answer.

    4. Re:Bah! by DeVilla · · Score: 4, Funny

      The language you refer to is whitespace, as described and linked in a comment below as well.

      I would post "Hello World" written in it here, but the comment thingy refused to accept it: "Filter error: Please use less whitespace."

      So those Perl bigots at Slashdot are finally actively excluding other programming languages by name.

  2. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft announces new language for the .NET platform, IronINTERCAL.

    With all the features of regular INTERCAL, but only runs on Windows Vista (tm).

    Miguel De Icaza had this to say about the exciting new development - "No Me Gusta." He's clearly speechless about this fabulous new language available only on Windows Vista (tm).

  3. LOLCODE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    LOLCODE might actually get this brain-damaged BASIC refugee trying their hand at programming again after all these years.

    1. Re:LOLCODE by Izzy84075 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You DO realize that's what it's supposed to do, right?

    2. Re:LOLCODE by exley · · Score: 5, Funny

      u is in our threadz
      missin teh point

  4. Better spoof languages by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

    INTERCAL has nothing on APL. Or even on Stroustroup's parody of C, which people actually think you're supposed to use.

  5. it's apparently amateur night by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh please.

    Has noone here ever used perl? :)

  6. Turn over the Google Source Code to Viacom in INTE by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google should just agree to turn over their source code in the Viacom suit after running it through a {sane language} ==> INTERCAL translator.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  7. Woah! by Zwicky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow! Researching these esoteric programming languages has been more than a brainfuck - it is positively a brainfuck++. Nay, I'm sure just reading of them is causing an irreversible loss of knowledge of real programming languages - that must surely qualify as a quantum brainfuck whereby both cannot be fully comprehended at the same time.

    Man, now I really feel like a dumbf*ck! Fuck, Fuck! Double fuck!

    The bad news is that my pointy haired boss has ordered that all development switch to his new favorite language. I think he may have been smoking something.

    This is bad for me because he has now had to ask me to go ahead and come in on Saturday. This means I will have to cancel my date, who has real come hither eyes, and I was so confident it was going to be a real beneficial[0] night[1].

    Argh!

    I wish I could get all my ducks in a row so I could give him a swift kick with my size nines so he walks funny for a week, flick him the V and leave this crummy company; that would rock!

    [0] High five!
    [1] Unlike the last one, on which the lady gave me an unexpected present.

    --
    "Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo