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Whizz: Your Esoteric Language that's Short as BF, but Easier to Write

#programming #computerscience #python

I just made Whizz, an esoteric programming language that is full of capability and possible experimentation. Before I interest you in that, I'll explain to you something.

What is an esoteric programming language?

An esoteric language (or an esolang, colloquially), is a programming language designed to not fit the coding 'norms' or conventions.

Take an example: BF ('BF' is an abbreviation and euphemism of brainf***).

A standard language would notate a 'Hello, World!' program as something like:

print("Hello, World!")
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BF, on the other hand, requires something like this:

++++++++[>++++[>++>+++>+++>+<<<<-]>+>+>->>+[<]<-]>>.>---.+++++++..+++.>>.<-.<.+++.------.--------.>>+.>++.
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As you can see, BF, like most esolangs, is different: it's hard to write and a puzzle.

Whizz is inspired by BF, as its incrementing, decrementing and looping are inspired by it.

I made Whizz because I thought languages like BF were way too monotonous to write. Esolangs should be hard and puzzling to write, but not laborious.

BF requires you type '+' as many times you want to increment (without loops): so you have to find shortcuts and unscalable solutions, just to achieve your goal. In Whizz, just type that incrementation repetition count before the '+' sign, and there you have it!

These wonderful features that Whizz boasts keep the challenge in esolang-ing, but contradictorily makes it more 'scalable'. Another notable feature is functions: the epitome of order.

An example of a Whizz program would be:

zeroToNine {
   [ create variables ]
   counter 10+ [ track state ]
   char 48+ [ print this one ]
   space 32+ [ space char ]

   (
     char!+ [ print and increment char ]
     counter-; [ decrement counter and end if zero ]
     space! [ print space ]
   )
}

zeroToNine*
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This, self explanatorily, outputs '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'. Again, in minimized form:

c10+n48+s32+(n!+c-;s!)
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I genuinely hope you experiment with Whizz, and solve puzzles & challenges with it, as if it were BF!

Install it with the ease of a terminal command:

pip install whizz
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If you have MacOS, use pip3.

Then, learn the usage & syntax instructions.

Please share your thoughts, and constructive feedback is absolutely encouraged.

Learn more about Whizz at the main site.

Bye!

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algorhymer profile image
sassenheimer •

An esoteric language (or an esolang, colloquially), is a programming language designed to not fit the coding 'norms' or conventions.

-- | Lemma
cong-zl : ∀ { A : Set } → ∀ (f : A → A → Bool) (xs₀ xs₁ ys : List A)
  → xs₀ ≡ xs₁
    -------------------------------------------------
  → zipWith f xs₀ ys ≡ zipWith f xs₁ ys
cong-zl f xs₀ xs₁ ys xs₀≡xs₁ rewrite xs₀≡xs₁ = refl
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