Esoteric Programming - Useful or a Waste of Time?
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
The right tool for the right job.
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
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The right tool for the right job.
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
Sadly, some of the tools I've hired over the years haven't been right for any job.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
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Sadly, some of the tools I've hired over the years haven't been right for any job.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
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Sadly, some of the tools I've hired over the years haven't been right for any job.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
You get what you pay for.
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
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You get what you pay for.
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
Mike Hankey wrote:
You get what you pay for.
Not all the time. I pay above the odds for the area - because, in general, I've managed to attract real stars. Sometimes though, that target has been missed.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
-
You get what you pay for.
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
In that case you have been uniquely lucky :-)
"I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant."
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Mike Hankey wrote:
You get what you pay for.
Not all the time. I pay above the odds for the area - because, in general, I've managed to attract real stars. Sometimes though, that target has been missed.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
If you can't dazzle em with brains baffle em with BS meaning that sometimes you get the bear and sometimes it gets you. :)
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
It looks like the distinction between "esoteric" and "joke" languages is pretty thin: LOLCode is not classed as a joke? Rather disappointing, really. One of the first compilers I wrote was for a language called TLC, "Tiny Life Compiler", designed to help implement simulations along the lines of John Conway's "Life" (there are a lot of interesting variations, such as introducting predators.) I was hoping to see stuff like that.
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In that case you have been uniquely lucky :-)
"I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant."
Most of the time. :)
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
Some of them are just a bit of fun, but depending on what you count as 'esoteric', some of them can be very good for opening your mind to different approaches. The obvious examples for a 'standard' programmer would be extreme functional languages or extreme declarative languages, to get you out of the procedural and OO mindset for a few minutes. (The other one, array languages to get out of scalar thinking, isn't really that esoteric, although it is not yet mainstream. Parallel processing and GPU acceleration might make them more popular.)
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
Most of them (all of them?) are proof of concept in compiler/interpreter theories and application; and exist because they are fun to implement (if that is your thing). I would expect that once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy to create many different languages. Other than that, it has been at least 20 years since I've used any other language than C and C++. Single purpose languages were useful at some point in time, but now, even the most popular ones (prolog, lisp/scheme, are less and less used outside of academics )
Watched code never compiles.
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If you can't dazzle em with brains baffle em with BS meaning that sometimes you get the bear and sometimes it gets you. :)
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
Wise words indeed.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
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Wise words indeed.
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
Sorry in a bit of a philosophical mood this morning. :)
The problem with borrowing money from China is 30 mins. later you feel broke again.
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
Waste of time. With few exceptions, I find the reasoning of "best tool for the job" to be specious and usually an excuse to use some new language just for the sake of it. The big mistake is forgetting that software must be sustained and hiring people who know esoteric languages isn't easy. I interviewed at a well known company for a Python position; I was the only engineer they'd interviewed who'd ever used it (and I'd only used it because some engineer at a previous company had pulled that "best tool" crap--his solution proved so problematic over time that I ended up rewriting his utility in very vanilla C++.) The only reason I didn't get the job is that the department was forced to take an internal transfer (who didn't know Python at all.) (This is also why I'm against using every fancy feature of a language unless it's absoutely necessary. It makes normal maintenance harder and also makes it harder to hire sustaining engineers for it. Reading other people's code can be very difficult, when they used esoteric techniques, it makes it worse. It also trips up optimizers and makes it's harder to find really obscure bugs.)
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Waste of time. With few exceptions, I find the reasoning of "best tool for the job" to be specious and usually an excuse to use some new language just for the sake of it. The big mistake is forgetting that software must be sustained and hiring people who know esoteric languages isn't easy. I interviewed at a well known company for a Python position; I was the only engineer they'd interviewed who'd ever used it (and I'd only used it because some engineer at a previous company had pulled that "best tool" crap--his solution proved so problematic over time that I ended up rewriting his utility in very vanilla C++.) The only reason I didn't get the job is that the department was forced to take an internal transfer (who didn't know Python at all.) (This is also why I'm against using every fancy feature of a language unless it's absoutely necessary. It makes normal maintenance harder and also makes it harder to hire sustaining engineers for it. Reading other people's code can be very difficult, when they used esoteric techniques, it makes it worse. It also trips up optimizers and makes it's harder to find really obscure bugs.)
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Hello Everybody, Esoteric programming languages like those listed on the Esolang Wiki[^] are odd beasts indeed. But do you think they're a useful tool in exploring computing concepts, a bit of fun or a complete waste of time? I think they're a bit of fun and sometimes even a little educational myself, but what do you think? MrWolfy :-D
Eh, I've been using VB.net for the last year. ::shrug::