Related:

• break-even point n. In the process of implementing a new computer language, the point at which the language is sufficiently effective that one can implement the language in itself.
  That is, for a new language called, hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached break-even when one can write a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL in FOOGOL, discard the original implementation language, and thereafter use working versions of FOOGOL to develop newer ones....
• MFTL /M-F-T-L/ [abbreviation: `My Favorite Toy Language'] 1.
  adj. Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on the syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e....
• BCPL // n. [abbreviation, `Basic Combined Programming Language') A programming language developed by Martin Richards in Cambridge in 1967.
  It is remarkable for its rich syntax, small size of compiler (it can be run in 16k) and extreme portability....
• foo /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very common] Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp.
  programs and files (esp. scratch files). 3. First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples....
• Pascal n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967-68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming.
  This language, designed primarily to keep students from shooting themselves in the foot and thus extremely restrictive from a general-purpose-programming point of view, was later promoted as a general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the ancestor of a large family of languages including Modula-2 and Ada (see also bondage-and-discipline l summed up by a devastating (and, in its deadpan way, screamingly funny) 1981 paper by Brian Kernighan (of K&...
• oddy: /nod'ee/ [UK: from the children's books] adj.
  1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point....
• LISP: [from `LISt Processing language', but mythically from `Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses'] n.
  AI's mother tongue, a language based on the ideas of (a) variable-length lists and trees as fundamental data types, and (b) the interpretation of code as data and vice-versa....
• green card: n. [after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an assembly language, even if the color is not green.
  Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language....
• oy language: n. A language useful for instructional purposes or as a proof-of-concept for some aspect of computer-science theory, but inadequate for general-purpose programming.
  {Bad Thing}s can result when a toy language is promoted as a general purpose solution for programming (see {bondage-and-discipline language})...