DEV Community: Shreshthaba Gohil The latest articles on DEV Community by Shreshthaba Gohil (@shreshthaba_gohil). https://dev.to/shreshthaba_gohil https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4202112%2F16e52e89-641c-4df6-a64d-4c2edfebe570.png DEV Community: Shreshthaba Gohil https://dev.to/shreshthaba_gohil en Séance: Dead Tongues — I Summoned the Ghost of SNOBOL4 in Your Browser Shreshthaba Gohil Sat, 31 Oct 2026 17:22:08 +0000 https://dev.to/shreshthaba_gohil/seance-dead-tongues-i-summoned-the-ghost-of-snobol4-in-your-browser-21nd https://dev.to/shreshthaba_gohil/seance-dead-tongues-i-summoned-the-ghost-of-snobol4-in-your-browser-21nd <p>SNOBOL4 died in 1967. Tonight, on Halloween, I brought it back.</p> <p><strong>Séance: Dead Tongues</strong> is a browser séance where the ghost of SNOBOL4 answers your questions — offline, no server, no API key, pure WebGPU.</p> <h2> What it does </h2> <ul> <li>Ask questions → get answers in SNOBOL4's voice</li> <li>Cast 7 actual SNOBOL4 "spells" that execute real code in a WASM interpreter</li> <li>Works offline after first load (PWA)</li> <li>100% free, runs in Chrome with WebGPU</li> </ul> <h2> The stack </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>WebLLM</strong> — Gemma 3 1B running via WebGPU in your browser</li> <li> <strong>BM25 retrieval</strong> — finds relevant SNOBOL4 knowledge before prompting</li> <li> <strong>snoflake WASM</strong> — real SNOBOL4 interpreter, not simulated</li> <li> <strong>Vite PWA</strong> — offline-first service worker</li> </ul> <h2> The weird part </h2> <p>SNOBOL4's entire soul is pattern matching. I built a BM25 retriever over 30 knowledge notes about SNOBOL4, so the ghost actually <em>knows</em> what it's talking about — not hallucinating.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <p>👉 <a href="https://shreshthabagohil.github.io/seance-dead-tongues/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://shreshthabagohil.github.io/seance-dead-tongues/</a></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://github.com/shreshthabagohil/seance-dead-tongues" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/shreshthabagohil/seance-dead-tongues</a></p> <p>Built for Hacktoberfest 2026 DEV Week 4.</p> hacktoberfest webdev javascript ai