Strange Code

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
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• How to design and create two original programming languages

Learning to think in these languages will make you a better, more confident programmer.