Todays programming language insanity is a real winner. It’s a language called SNUSP. You can find the language specification [here][snuspspec], a [compiler][snuspcomp], and [an interpreter embedded in a web page][snuspinterp]. It’s sort of like a cross between [Befunge][befunge] and [Brainfuck][brainfuck], except that it also allows subroutines. (And in a variant, *threads*!) The real beauty of […]

For today’s installation of programming insanity, I decided to go with a relative of Thue, which is one of my favorite languages insane languages that I wrote about before. Thue is a language based on a rewriting system specified by a semi-Thue grammar. Todays language is called Thutu (pronounced tutu); it’s a string rewriting system […]

Todays bit of programming insanity is a bit of a novelty: it’s an object-oriented programming language called Glass, with an interpreter available here. So far in all of my Friday Pathological Programming columns, I haven’t written about a single object-oriented language. But Glass is something special. It’s actually sort of a warped cross between Smalltalk […]

I’m sure that in the friday pathological programming languages, I have a fondness for languages that make your code beautiful: languages like [SNUSP][snusp], [Befunge][befunge], [Piet][piet], and such. Those languages all you two-dimensional layouts for their programs. [snusp]: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2006/08/beautiful_insanity_pathologica.php [befunge]: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2006/07/friday_pathological_programmin.php [piet]: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2006/11/programming_in_color_fixed.php Among the nutters that make up the community of folks interested in this […]

Todays tidbit of torture is a simple little language called [Leszek][leszek], with an implementation available [here][leszek-impl]. Leszek is based on the idea of *iterative string rewriting*, which is actually a useful and valuable concept. Of course, Leszek takes it to an extreme of insanity which takes a perfectly good idea, and turns it into a […]

Todays programming pathology is programs as art. Start with a really simple stack based language, add in a crazy way of encoding instructions using color, and you end up with a masterpiece of beautiful insanity. It’s not too exciting from a purely computational point of view, but the programs are really great to look at. […]

I was hoping for a bit of a vanity post for todays pathological programming language in honor of my 40th birthday (tomorrow), but I didn’t have time to finish implementing my own little piece of insanity. So it’ll have to wait for some other occasion. Todays pathological programming language is a really simple monstrosity called […]

Today, we’re going to take a look at a brilliant language called Befunge. Befunge is the work of an evil genius named Chris Pressey. Normal programming languages are based on a basically one-dimensional syntax; the program is a string, a sequence of characters, and it’s processed by reading that string in a straight-ahead fashion. But […]

I’m currently away on a family vacation, and as soon as vacation is over, I’m off on a business trip for a week. And along the way, I’ve got some deadlines for my book. So to fill in, I’m recycling some old posts. I decided that it’s been entirely too long since there was any […]