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Strange Code: Esoteric Languages That Make Programming Fun Again
Strengthen your overall coding skills by exploring the wonderful, wild, and often weird world of esoteric languages (esolangs).
Strange Code starts with a dive into the underlying history of programming, covering the early computer-science concepts, like Turing machines and Turing completeness, that led to the languages we use today. It then explores the realm of “atypical” programming languages, introducing you to the out-of-the-box thinking that comes from these unusual approaches to coding.
Later chapters address the even more unusual esolangs, nearly all of which are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Finally, author Ron Kneusel helps you develop and use two entirely new programming languages. You may not apply these languages in your day job, but this one-of-a-kind book will motivate you to think differently about what it means to express thought through code, while discovering the far-flung boundaries of programming.
You’ll learn:
How to program with pictures using Piet
How to write two-dimensional programs in Befunge
How to implement machine-learning algorithms using the text pattern matching language SNOBOL
How to decipher Brainfuck code like [->-[>+>>]>[[-<+>]+>+>>]<<<<<]
How to design and create two original programming languages
Learning to think in these languages will make you a better, more confident programmer.
Strange Code starts with a dive into the underlying history of programming, covering the early computer-science concepts, like Turing machines and Turing completeness, that led to the languages we use today. It then explores the realm of “atypical” programming languages, introducing you to the out-of-the-box thinking that comes from these unusual approaches to coding.
Later chapters address the even more unusual esolangs, nearly all of which are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Finally, author Ron Kneusel helps you develop and use two entirely new programming languages. You may not apply these languages in your day job, but this one-of-a-kind book will motivate you to think differently about what it means to express thought through code, while discovering the far-flung boundaries of programming.
You’ll learn:
How to program with pictures using Piet
How to write two-dimensional programs in Befunge
How to implement machine-learning algorithms using the text pattern matching language SNOBOL
How to decipher Brainfuck code like [->-[>+>>]>[[-<+>]+>+>>]<<<<<]
How to design and create two original programming languages
Learning to think in these languages will make you a better, more confident programmer.
- GenresProgrammingScience
494 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2022
9 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Ronald T. Kneusel
17 books29 followersMy infatuation with computers began in 1981 with an Apple II. I've been active in machine learning since 2003, and deep learning since before AlexNet was a thing.
My background includes a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Colorado, Boulder (deep learning), and an M.S. in physics from Michigan State University.
By day, I work in industry building deep learning systems. By night, I type away on my keyboard generating the books you see here. I sincerely hope that if you explore my books, you gain as much enjoyment from them as I had in creating them.
Please see my full list of books here: www.rkneusel.com
Questions? Comments? Let me know at [email protected]
My background includes a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Colorado, Boulder (deep learning), and an M.S. in physics from Michigan State University.
By day, I work in industry building deep learning systems. By night, I type away on my keyboard generating the books you see here. I sincerely hope that if you explore my books, you gain as much enjoyment from them as I had in creating them.
Please see my full list of books here: www.rkneusel.com
Questions? Comments? Let me know at [email protected]
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 19, 2024
It's a fun book about an interesting topic that hasn't been covered much. I would like to learn about more esolangs, but I still enjoyed this a lot.
Displaying 1 of 1 review