Miscreant Programming Languages

About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt
ax.  It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
    -- Edsger Dijkstra
    

So, hacking low-level Linux kernel code just wasn't enough for you? Found porting applications from Windows to VMS and vice versa was just too easy? Well, now, like me, you too can continue your quest for The Truly Challenging Programming Experience.

In order to have a TCPE, however, you must have a truly challenging task to accomplish in programming. Most people would think, "how about creating an AI?" or "Let's solve the halting problem!" or some other frivolous task; I say, those are too easy! What you need my friend is a programming language designed with the explicit goal to make it hard to program in.

That's how we come to MPLs. MPLs are programming languages created by miscreants, for miscreants. They are the kinds of things that insure job security, make life interesting, and if designed right (or wrong, depending on your point of view), you can never do the same thing exactly the same way twice in them.

How do programming languages get this way? Some happen, by accident, such as APL or PL/I. Others, such as the ones featured here, were made to be hard to use on purpose.

So, my friend, if you haven't run screaming yet, continue reading on to experience the "joys" (joy to a masochist) of programming in MPLs.

• INTERCAL, a joke taken far too seriously.
• Malbolge, programming from Hell.
• The Cat's Eye Technologies has lots of links to strange programming languages.
• The Encyclopedia of Stupid Languages, from yet another cool person.

"Is that all?" I hear you say. No, not quite. I do plan on putting up some programs written in these bletcherous languages sooner or later. But I do have a full-time job to attend to, so don't hold your breath.