4 ms·

I hate to sound alarmist, but I'm seriously worried that we're reaching "peak novelty programming language". If we don't start exploring alternative uses of fre

I hate to sound alarmist, but I'm seriously worried that we're reaching "peak novelty programming language". If we don't start exploring alternative uses of free time now, we're going to be in serious trouble soon.

stuxnet79 11y ago
Seriously ... it is stuff like this that makes me not want to check HN much these days.
- mapmeld 11y ago
  hey I understand the sentiment. But I work on "serious" tech all week and show that to my boss or my client. If I have a joke project like this or "gitjk" then I show it to HN, and people seem to like and remember them more than any of the "serious" work that I've done
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
    Well said. This post is like a breath of fresh air, because it doesn't pretend to be useful like those speculative business ideas or new JS frameworks.
- njharman 11y ago
  Please don't. I'm sure you won't be missed.
dgabriel 11y ago
Toy languages are fun, and nothing new. Making your own language is a great exercise.
- krapp 11y ago
  No one complains when someone shows up with a new toy Lisp or transpiler language, but implement a language using unusual Unicode codepoints and all of a sudden monkeys are swinging from the chandeliers. And yet even a toy language is a more productive use of someone's time than the fruitless political commentary around here.
evincarofautumn 11y ago
It bothers me more that they all tend to be reskins of conventional imperative languages. It’s fun when it’s a joke, but a lot of non-joke languages are built the same way. We don’t need new syntax for the same semantics—we need new semantics.
- mapmeld 11y ago
  It's closer to a functional language though--there's a break statement but no return statement
- chippy 11y ago
  They should re-do it in the Urbit language/thing
roywiggins 11y ago
I thought we hit it back during LOLCODE.

4 ms·

I hate to sound alarmist, but I'm seriously worried that we're reaching "peak novelty programming language". If we don't start exploring alternative uses of fre

by riebschlager 11y ago

stuxnet79 11y ago
Seriously ... it is stuff like this that makes me not want to check HN much these days.
- mapmeld 11y ago
  hey I understand the sentiment. But I work on "serious" tech all week and show that to my boss or my client. If I have a joke project like this or "gitjk" then I show it to HN, and people seem to like and remember them more than any of the "serious" work that I've done
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
    Well said. This post is like a breath of fresh air, because it doesn't pretend to be useful like those speculative business ideas or new JS frameworks.
- njharman 11y ago
  Please don't. I'm sure you won't be missed.
dgabriel 11y ago
Toy languages are fun, and nothing new. Making your own language is a great exercise.
- krapp 11y ago
  No one complains when someone shows up with a new toy Lisp or transpiler language, but implement a language using unusual Unicode codepoints and all of a sudden monkeys are swinging from the chandeliers. And yet even a toy language is a more productive use of someone's time than the fruitless political commentary around here.
evincarofautumn 11y ago
It bothers me more that they all tend to be reskins of conventional imperative languages. It’s fun when it’s a joke, but a lot of non-joke languages are built the same way. We don’t need new syntax for the same semantics—we need new semantics.
- mapmeld 11y ago
  It's closer to a functional language though--there's a break statement but no return statement
- chippy 11y ago
  They should re-do it in the Urbit language/thing
roywiggins 11y ago
I thought we hit it back during LOLCODE.