April Fools

ruby-talk
21

“MikkelFJ” mikkelfj-anti-spam@bigfoot.com writes:

“Jim Freeze” jim@freeze.org wrote in message
news:20030401171016.A54033@freeze.org…

So, Hal, just how would I use a ‘comefrom’ command?
Kinda non-causal, don’t you think? :slight_smile:

I was actually pointed to a language with such a construct, but I don’t
recall what it was called perhaps it was Befunge.

Intercal. A remarkable language, although many of the remarks aren’t
repeatable in polite circles.

http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/intercal-man/home.html

for the Intercal manual,

http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/intercal-man/s04.html#4.14

specifically for the COMEFROM statement. Apparently the idea of
COMEFROM was a 1984 CACM April Fools joke.

···

–
Conspiracy theories exist to prevent you knowing what’s really going on.

22

“Michael Campbell” michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com wrote in message
news:20030401225227.84865.qmail@web12403.mail.yahoo.com…

recall what it was called perhaps it was Befunge.

Intercal

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ComeFrom

I’ve also heard of Intercal, but Befunge sounds right:

“The PC in Befunge-93, however, is subject to different rules. It may go
forward, backward, left or right. A Befunge-93 program is treated as an
80x25 torus (a page which wraps around on the edges) of ASCII text. Certain
commands change the direction of the progress of the PC. By default, the PC
points to the upper-left corner of the program, and is oriented to travel
left-to-right.”

The above comes from

http://www.catseye.mb.ca/projects/befunge93-2003.0325/doc/befunge93.html

Mikkel

23

“Michael Campbell” michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com wrote in message
news:20030401225227.84865.qmail@web12403.mail.yahoo.com…

recall what it was called perhaps it was Befunge.

Intercal

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ComeFrom

I’ve also heard of Intercal, but Befunge sounds right:

Oh I know about befunge too (and brainfu*k, and a slew of other esoteric
languages), but I thought you were wondering where “comefrom” … came from, as
it were. To my knowledge, it was intercal. The latest jargon file entry
confirms: http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/entry/COME-FROM.html

Or did I misunderstand the question?

24

“Mike Campbell” michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com wrote in message
news:NFBBKBEMGLGCIPPFGHOLOEOHDGAA.michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com…

I’ve also heard of Intercal, but Befunge sounds right:

Oh I know about befunge too (and brainfu*k, and a slew of other esoteric
languages), but I thought you were wondering where “comefrom” … came
from, as
it were. To my knowledge, it was intercal. The latest jargon file entry
confirms: http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/entry/COME-FROM.html

Or did I misunderstand the question?

No it was just that I was pointed to a language that would run in both
directions. I later realized it was indeed Befunge I had heard about -
there’s no deeper meaning to it.

Mikkel