
Why INTERCAL is better than Perl (2002) - brudgers
http://articles.mongueurs.net/spoofathon/INTERCAL.html
======
HCIdivision17
INTERCAL has made _many_ contributions to the state-of-the-art for numerous
modern languages. My personal favorite sides with the author with the
implementation of COME FROM, which is indisputably a vast improvement over the
much maligned GOTO. It's so handy that it's been ported to Python! [0]

[0] [http://entrian.com/goto/](http://entrian.com/goto/)

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nickpsecurity
Java implementation here:

[http://progopedia.com/implementation/j-intercal/](http://progopedia.com/implementation/j-intercal/)

Now, are there any true innovators out there that want to put a REST-ful web
framework on it? ;)

~~~
AlisdairO
[http://www.intercaloninterstates.org/index.html](http://www.intercaloninterstates.org/index.html)

~~~
nickpsecurity
Oh... my... God...

------
emergentcypher
Hearing about INTERCAL always reminds me of this:
[https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/6088-the-worst-
programm...](https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/6088-the-worst-programming-
language-ever)

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nickpsecurity
That was hilarious. Especially the precedence section. The brilliance behind
INTERCAL's design also inspired work in the functional programming domain:

[http://www.madore.org/~david/programs/unlambda/#what_is](http://www.madore.org/~david/programs/unlambda/#what_is)

The lambda calculus without the lambda operation. Brilliant improvement!

Now we just need a video of Wirth's reaction to a demo of these.

------
stevebmark
Perl doesn't have boolean types and you have to end class definitions with 1;
Most languages are better than Perl.

~~~
eCa
But what is true in Perl is well-defined:
[http://perldoc.perl.org/perlsyn.html#Truth-and-
Falsehood](http://perldoc.perl.org/perlsyn.html#Truth-and-Falsehood)

And modules doesn't _have_ to end with 1;. They must return a true value :)

Added: If one really want booleans, there is [1].

[1] [https://metacpan.org/pod/boolean](https://metacpan.org/pod/boolean)

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aarestad
My favorite part, at the end:

...With INTERCAL, you can regularly type your name in your program. Especially
if your name is FORGET.

Author

Jean Forget ...

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korginator
Perl lends itself to craziness because of the notorious TMTOWTDI principle
taken to the extreme - Intercal can indeed appear more sane than many Perl
programs I have had the misfortune to use and (shudder) update.

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m0skit0
Is this article actually serious? I can't help but think it is satirical.

~~~
nickpsecurity
I'll give you a link and let you guess:

[http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/](http://www.catb.org/~esr/intercal/)

