[Tutor] OT: we won't eat VB programmers for lunch [Was: How do I make Python draw?]

[jfouhy@paradise.net.nz]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005, luke wrote:
 
> VB is not a good language to learn because it is the complete opposite
> of every other programming language.

If you think that's true, google some time for "esoteric programming languages" :-)

Some examples:

http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/ --- an 8 instruction programming
language designed with the goal of making the smallest compiler possible. (the
AmigaOS compiler was 240 bytes long)

http://www.madore.org/~david/programs/unlambda/ --- unLambda: _everything_ is a
function. ("Your Functional Programming Language Nightmares Come True")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbolge_programming_language --- Malbolge:
Designed to be the most horrible programming language conceivable.  "Malbolge
was so difficult to understand when it arrived that it took two years for the
first Malbolge program to appear."

http://shakespearelang.sourceforge.net/ --- Programs are in the form of
Shakespearean plays.

http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/ --- Whitespace: The only legal syntax
characters are spaces, tabs and newlines.  All other characters are considered
comments.

There's also one I've seen where your program was an ASCII-art line, and the
instructions were given by the angle when your line turned a corner.  180deg was
a no-op, so you could make your program as big as you wanted.