Episode 78 - INTERCAL and Esoterica

Programming doesn't have to be a very serious discipline. In fact, sometimes it's better if it's a little silly. Today we are talking about INTERCAL, the first esoteric programming language. Is it a joke? Is it a form of hacker folk art? Is it even a good language? To answer those questions we need to asses what makes a programming language "good" in the first place. Program INTERCAL online today! (https://www.tutorialspoint.com/compile_intercal_online.php) Selected Sources: https://archive.org/details/intercal-ref/mode/1up?view=theater - 1973 INTERCAL Manual https://esoteric.codes/blog/don-woods - Interview with Don Woods https://sci-hub.se/10.1145/800197.806048 - 1965 TRAC paper