[Stovek]

Despite all of the common languages (C/C++/C#, Java, PHP, HTML, etc., etc.), there are a lot more uncommon ones out there. They may have been created recently and just don't have a strong following yet, or they may have been around for a while but just never caught on. I know I enjoy testing the waters of new languages, but I'm not sure how other people feel about the subject. What uncommon language(s) do you know?

Processing would be my unusual language. It's technically a wrapper around Java, yet it's a completely different animal.

[Gloin]

I can't think of a thing to say. I'm totally hypnotized by that avatar..

[GenHornet18]

Well back in the day in school I used NQC(Not Quite C) and BrickOS to program the small RCX used in my high school engineering class.

btw I think there's an entire forum dedicated to rarely seen languages

[Stovek]

Gloin, on 6 Dec, 2009 - 09:25 AM, said:

I can't think of a thing to say. I'm totally hypnotized by that avatar..

Thanks? It's actually the center of a drawing I made in Processing. I cheesily named it "Spiral Rose."

GenHornet18, on 6 Dec, 2009 - 10:15 AM, said:

Well back in the day in school I used NQC(Not Quite C) and BrickOS to program the small RCX used in my high school engineering class.

btw I think there's an entire forum dedicated to rarely seen languages

I wish I had the opportunity to program in my high school (at least, as part of a class). I don't think mine had an engineering class.

And I wasn't thinking of talking specifics about problems to solve within the languages or whatnot -- just being sociable about peoples' experiences. At least, I kind of see the language-specific forums as being more about problem solving or showcasing work you've accomplished.

[baavgai]

I once wrote some stuff in XUL, at the time it felt real lonely. Same with Lua; then they nerfed my warlock and I lost interest...

I'm about to write some XSLT. I use XSL for transformations all the time. It seems like it should be ubiquitous, the tool of choice for the job, the gold standard. You can find a considerable amount of information on it. And yet, in practice, it still feels like you're to only one out there using it. People got out of their way to avoid it. Write entire libraries to do what it already does. Every time I do work in it, I always find myself asking; why don't more people use this?

Powershell. It should be the scripting language of choice for any Windows admin. But admins aren't usually that into programming and programmers aren't usually that into admin tasks. The language is more a programmer toy, and more a unix meets .NET one at that. I don't think it's being used as much as it could.

Javacript. I know, javascript is everywhere. However, good clean OO javascript, with objects and prototypes and first order functions and all the real clever stuff javascript can do; that's very hard to find. Again, most javascript is not written by programmers and so suffers.

[V.C. Sniper]

Anee1 herd of Linoleum?

http://en.wikipedia....mming_language)

Basikly a portable Assembly.

[Raynes]

Clojure, but it's not really obscure.

[Lemur]

Google Go is newer and not sure if it's released yet.

[Raynes]

Lemur, on 6 Dec, 2009 - 04:50 PM, said:

Google Go is newer and not sure if it's released yet.

It's released.

[Momerath]

APL (long time ago, I doubt if I could do anything without relearning the language).

OPL (Object Programming Language)

[5thWall]

Two of my professors are working on their own languages. But I've only played around with one. The one I haven't worked with is a functional language called Ginger. Unfortunately I haven't taken a class where he uses it and his website doesn't have much any documentation up. So I don't know much beyond it being a functional language and there are some literate programming elements to it.

I used the other language, called Slag, during a game design class I took and it's actually very nice, if a little rough around the edges. He originally created it as a language for programming games, but then decided that the design philosophy for the language would be "ergonomic programming," and kept all the game stuff in his 2d game API called Plasmacore. You can check out the site for the language/API at http://www.plasmaworks.com/slag. So far there have been a handful of iPhone games written in the language, as well as at least one Android and one Wii-Ware game.

[mojo666]

baavgai, on 6 Dec, 2009 - 12:59 PM, said:

I'm about to write some XSLT. I use XSL for transformations all the time. It seems like it should be ubiquitous, the tool of choice for the job, the gold standard. You can find a considerable amount of information on it. And yet, in practice, it still feels like you're to only one out there using it. People got out of their way to avoid it. Write entire libraries to do what it already does. Every time I do work in it, I always find myself asking; why don't more people use this?

I think there's a lot required by xslt that most people try to avoid in favor of simpilar alternatives found in other languages. For example xslt lacks variables and string comparison. Sure these are easily overcome by extensions or template recursion, but that's just more things that people want to avoid. It may also just be the readability/writeability. Outside of an IDE, xslt makes you want to gouge your eyes out and smash your keyboard.

EDIT
Troubleshooting a coworker's xslt (particularly when they dont understand xslt) is hell. It may be the one thing that makes me hesitant when it comes to using xslt.

This post has been edited by mojo666: 07 December 2009 - 10:40 AM

[Stovek]

5thWall, on 7 Dec, 2009 - 08:33 AM, said:

Two of my professors are working on their own languages. But I've only played around with one. The one I haven't worked with is a functional language called Ginger. Unfortunately I haven't taken a class where he uses it and his website doesn't have much any documentation up. So I don't know much beyond it being a functional language and there are some literate programming elements to it.

I've never actually used a functional language before. I did download F#, but as with other programming knick-knacks on my computer (aka. DirectX SDK) it's on my hard drive despite never being used. Sort of a side hobby of mine -- collecting programming languages and telling myself I'll eventually get around to using them. Whether or not I actually will remains to be seen

[baavgai]

mojo666, on 7 Dec, 2009 - 11:30 AM, said:

I think there's a lot required by xslt that most people try to avoid in favor of simpilar alternatives found in other languages. For example xslt lacks variables and string comparison.

Yep, string manipulation is awkward at best. It does have variables, of course. Just not variable variables; that is they're all what another language might call const or final. It's absolutely not a procedural language; it's declarative. You can always tell someone who doesn't "get it", they use for-each.

The reason XSLT isn't used is that most programmers don't seem to relate well to the paradigm. The same can be said of possibly the simplest and most common of computer languages; SQL. Also declarative. Also used very, very, badly. Again, you tell who doesn't understand it by the use of loops.

[SixOfEleven]

Languages that I've used in the past but don't see too often any more are, like Momerath, APL. Did a little work with that for a while. Just plain old BASIC seems to have died as well. Pascal is still used some, mostly for teaching purposes. One that I haven't heard of in a long time is Modula-2. Sort of an object-oriented Pascal. Another one that I haven't heard from in a while is Smalltalk. I would really have to brush up on most of them, except Pascal, for some reason I've remembered that one. Probably because I had two classes on it in high school and two in university.

I would really have to brush up on this one, COBOL, haven't programmed in that since 91. My first paying programming job was a COBOL project in high school. Also tutored a girl with cerebral palsy in COBOL in high school, for course credit in co-op. I hear that a good COBOL programmer can write their own salary basically. I've also heard rumors that they were bringing out an object-oriented version of it.