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This is a normal episode of a podcast called Future of Coding. We talk about INTERCAL, a real tool for computer programming. [Do I need to say more? Will this sell it? Most people won\\u2019t have heard of INTERCAL, but I think the fake out \\u201cnormal\\u201d is enough to draw their attention. Also, I find \\u201ccomputer programming\\u201d funny. Not sure why I put that in quotes.]

Links [at least, the ones I remembered to jot down]

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  The final Strange Loop is coming up this September. Ivan and Jimmy will both be there, though\\u2014late breaking news\\u2014neither of them will be giving a talk. (\\u201cRocket Rules\\u201d apply, if you know what that is.) [Will anyone actually know what \\u201cRocket Rules\\u201d is? Will they search for it? That would be sort of embarrassing for me.]

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  If Ivan were to give a programming talk, getting some flood-contaminated gear from DEC or a PDP-11 to use as staging / set dressing might be a challenge. [Yay, another retread of my personal history. Maybe instead of dredging up my past I should be the sort of person who makes new things, like, ever.]

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  Meowmeowbeenz [Gah this show hasn\\u2019t aged well. At least I\\u2019m sticking to the whole \\u201chigh-brow + low-brow\\u201d personal identity by including the reference to it. [Is \\u201cmeta\\u201d low-brow at this point?]]

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  There\\u2019s lots of talk about esolangs (esoteric programming languages), so it\\u2019s worth linking the Esolang Wiki. [I worry that we spent too much time focusing on surface syntax. Jimmy tried to get us to talk about the beautifully-weird semantics within INTERCAL, but we never fully went there. I\\u2019m sure some people will complain about this lack of depth. Not looking forward to that.]

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  In particular, Brainfuck, which Jimmy adorably refers to as \\u201cBF\\u201d because he\\u2019s a polite gentleman and Ivan is 2% South Park. [Laughing at my own joke.]

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  Also, Shakespeare and Shakespeare: vaulting ambition, Out, damned spot, both from the Scottish play (you don\\u2019t know where I am, don\\u2019t @ me). [Why are these in the show notes? Am I trying to signal some sort of theatre-literacy? Who cares?]

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  \\u201cCOMEFROM was eventually implemented in the C-INTERCAL variant of the esoteric programming language INTERCAL\\u201d [Considering that this was such a non-element in the original paper, it\\u2019s weird that it became such a cornerstone of the episode. \\u201cWhat if we recreated the spirit of the paper in the podcast itself\\u201d is a tall order, so I guess we did what we could with what we had. Also, I bet someone is going to object that the paper and language aren\\u2019t actually very meta, especially not multiple layers deep, to which I\\u2019ll reply: we all bring the flavour of our mouth to the soup we taste.]

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  Exapunks\\u2026 Yeah! [Speaking of things that haven\\u2019t aged well\\u2026\\xa0woof. I like our newer episodes better. Especially this one. THAT\\u2019S JUST BAIT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WILL COMPLAIN THAT THIS SHOW HAS GONE OFF THE RAILS, PLEASE DO CONTINUE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW.]

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  Our tier list was created in tldraw, because it\\u2019s the best. [I wish someone applied Steve-and-co\\u2019s eye for detail to a visual programming tool. I wish I had time.]

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  The excellent Advent of Computing podcast did an episode on INTERCAL. (Aside: the AoC website seems a bit busted in non-Chrome browsers, so here\\u2019s a backup YouTube link, but you can also just search for Advent of Computing in your podcast player of choice.) [AoC is the exception that proves the rule: there are no high-quality programming podcasts. They all seem so low-effort, made by people who don\\u2019t respect the listener\\u2019s time and attention. Or they\\u2019re aping the high-budget NPR style, with no personality. Also, audio quality is all over the map. Also, just the worst garbage ads and theme music, all of them! I wonder if it\\u2019s just a cost-benefit time/energy tradeoff, or maybe people don\\u2019t know how to do better? I wonder what we could do to help raise the bar, without opening ourselves up to a bunch of \\u201cwell I don\\u2019t like your podcast either\\u201d presumed competitiveness.]

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  The video Screens in Screens in Screens is fantastic, and the sort of thing that deserves our support. Also, Lu Wilson (the human behind TodePond) has their own programming language that will not be named on podcasts, DreamBerd, which uses the ! to great effect. [Meta-commentary intentionally left blank.]

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Some of the music featured in this episode:

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• All Caps by MF DOOM and Madlib [I don\\u2019t even like it when other podcasts include music clips, but then away I go needle-dropping like I\\u2019ve got something to prove.]
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• Various songs from Ivan\\u2019s old albums. [I need to update my website. I need to tweak my static site generator. I need to redesign all the CSS. I need to consider putting all my projects into a database so I can generate nicer indexes. I also need to make some new projects \\u2014\\xa0especially music.]
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Get in touch, ask us questions, send us the sound of your knuckles cracking:

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• Ivan: Mastodon \\u2022 Email [If you don\\u2019t have something nice to say, know that I\\u2019m very sensitive and nurse wounds for a long time. Also, Nurse With Wound is great.]
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• Jimmy: Mastodon \\u2022 Twitter [Jimmy doesn\\u2019t write these notes so I don\\u2019t know what he\\u2019s thinking, but I can imagine: a horse galloping in the wind, Jimmy riding shirtless on the horse, Jimmy holding a gigantic tome of philosophical wisdom in one hand, the other outstretched before him, words of revelation flowing from his mouth like honey, \\u201cIvan, the setup to this joke was lame\\u201d]
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• Or just DM us in the FoC Slack. [<3]
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https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/064

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