Most interesting non-mainstream language? [closed]

Answer 1

Rebol of course ! It's so simple but so powerfull learn it at http://reboltutorial.com

Answer 2

Haskell and REBOL are both fascinating languages, for very different reasons.

Haskell can really open your eyes as a developer, with concepts like monads, partial application, pattern matching, algebraic types, etc. It's a smorgasbord for the curious programmer.

REBOL is no slouch either. It's deceptively simple at first, but when you begin to delve into concepts like contexts, PARSE dialects, and Bindology, you realize there's much more than meets the eye. The nice thing about REBOL is that it's much easier to get started with it than with Haskell.

I can't decide which I like better.

Answer 3

ML. Learning it and using it forces you think differently about programming problems differently. It also grants one patience, in most cases. Most.

Answer 4

The first major (non-BASIC) language that I learned was Dream Maker, from http://www.byond.com. It's somewhat similar to C++ or Java, but it's largely pre-built for designing multiplayer online games. It's very much based on inheritance. It's an intersting language especially as a starting language, it gets gratifying results quicker, and lets be honest, most people who are first learning to program are interested in one thing... games.

Answer 5

Ken Kahn's ToonTalk, a cartoon language with hard-core theoretic underpinnings: http://www.toontalk.com/

Prograph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prograph ... seems Prograph lives on as Marten: http://andescotia.com/products/marten/

Self's IDE was/is a thing of beauty, talk about Flow (in the Csíkszentmihályi sense)...

Overall, though, I'd have to say Haskell is the most interesting, for the potential adavances in computing that it represents.

Answer 6

FORTH was a language designed for low level code on early CPU's. Its most notable feature was RPN stack based math operations. The same type of math used on early HP calculators. For example 1+2+3+4= would be written as 1, 2, 3, 4, + , +, +