I just made Whizz, an esoteric programming language that is full of capability and possible experimentation. Before I interest you in that, I'll explain to you something.
What is an esoteric programming language?
An esoteric language (or an esolang, colloquially), is a programming language designed to not fit the coding 'norms' or conventions.
Take an example: BF ('BF' is an abbreviation and euphemism of brainf***).
A standard language would notate a 'Hello, World!' program as something like:
print("Hello, World!")
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BF, on the other hand, requires something like this:
++++++++[>++++[>++>+++>+++>+<<<<-]>+>+>->>+[<]<-]>>.>---.+++++++..+++.>>.<-.<.+++.------.--------.>>+.>++.
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As you can see, BF, like most esolangs, is different: it's hard to write and a puzzle.
Whizz is inspired by BF, as its incrementing, decrementing and looping are inspired by it.
I made Whizz because I thought languages like BF were way too monotonous to write. Esolangs should be hard and puzzling to write, but not laborious.
BF requires you type '+' as many times you want to increment (without loops): so you have to find shortcuts and unscalable solutions, just to achieve your goal. In Whizz, just type that incrementation repetition count before the '+' sign, and there you have it!
These wonderful features that Whizz boasts keep the challenge in esolang-ing, but contradictorily makes it more 'scalable'. Another notable feature is functions: the epitome of order.
An example of a Whizz program would be:
zeroToNine {
[ create variables ]
counter 10+ [ track state ]
char 48+ [ print this one ]
space 32+ [ space char ]
(
char!+ [ print and increment char ]
counter-; [ decrement counter and end if zero ]
space! [ print space ]
)
}
zeroToNine*
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This, self explanatorily, outputs '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'. Again, in minimized form:
c10+n48+s32+(n!+c-;s!)
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I genuinely hope you experiment with Whizz, and solve puzzles & challenges with it, as if it were BF!
Install it with the ease of a terminal command:
pip install whizz
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If you have MacOS, use pip3.
Then, learn the usage & syntax instructions.
Please share your thoughts, and constructive feedback is absolutely encouraged.
Learn more about Whizz at the main site.
Bye!
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