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25 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>INTERCAL</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../I.html" title="I"/><link rel="previous" href="installfest.html" title="installfest"/><link rel="next" href="InterCaps.html" title="InterCaps"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">INTERCAL</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="installfest.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">I</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="InterCaps.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="INTERCAL"/><dt xmlns="" id="INTERCAL"><b>INTERCAL</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/in<69>t@r<>kal/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [said by the authors to stand for <span class="firstterm">Compiler Language With No Pronounceable
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Acronym</span>] A computer language designed by Don Woods and James
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Lyons in 1972. INTERCAL is purposely different from all other computer
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languages in all ways but one; it is purely a written language, being
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totally unspeakable. An excerpt from the INTERCAL Reference Manual will
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make the style of the language clear:</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>It is a well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose work is
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incomprehensible is held in high esteem. For example, if one were to state
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that the simplest way to store a value of 65536 in a 32-bit INTERCAL variable
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is:</p><div class="literallayout"><p><br/>
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DO<EFBFBD>:1<><-<2D>#0$#256<br/>
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</p></div><p>any sensible programmer would say that that was absurd. Since this is
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indeed the simplest method, the programmer would be made to look foolish in
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front of his boss, who would of course have happened to turn up, as bosses are
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wont to do. The effect would be no less devastating for the programmer having
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been correct.</p></blockquote></div><p>INTERCAL has many other peculiar features designed to make it even
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more unspeakable. The Woods-Lyons implementation was actually used by many
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(well, at least several) people at Princeton. The language has been
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recently reimplemented as C-INTERCAL and is consequently enjoying an
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unprecedented level of unpopularity; there is even an <tt class="systemitem">alt.lang.intercal</tt> newsgroup devoted to the
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study and ... appreciation of the language on Usenet.</p><p>Inevitably, INTERCAL has a home page on the Web: <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/" target="_top">http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/</a>. An
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extended version, implemented in (what else?) <a href="../P/Perl.html"><i class="glossterm">Perl</i></a>
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and adding object-oriented features, is rumored to exist. See also
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<a href="../B/Befunge.html"><i class="glossterm">Befunge</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="installfest.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../I.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="InterCaps.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">installfest<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>InterCaps</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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