JargonFile/entries/toy language.txt
2014-07-26 08:53:53 +01:00

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toy language
n. A language useful for instructional purposes or as a proof-of-concept for
some aspect of computer-science theory, but inadequate for general-purpose
programming. Bad Things can result when a toy language is promoted as a
general purpose solution for programming (see bondage-and-discipline
language ); the classic example is Pascal. Several moderately well-known
formalisms for conceptual tasks such as programming Turing machines also
qualify as toy languages in a less negative sense. See also MFTL.