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Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

#3
I would not be surprised if TAL is still used for https://www.hpe.com/us/en/servers/nonstop.html boxen.

Similarly, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/clearpath-forward-li... probably still uses its bespoke languages ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems#ALGOL ) in places.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

#4

I would not be surprised if TAL is still used for https://www.hpe.com/us/en/servers/nonstop.html boxen. Similarly, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/clearpath-forward-li... probably still uses its bespoke languages ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems#ALGOL ) in places.

I wonder how much people who still write these languages are paid? I feel like it is one extreme or the other. You are rolling in it or you just don't know any better.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

#6
post #4

I would not be surprised if TAL is still used for https://www.hpe.com/us/en/servers/nonstop.html boxen. Similarly, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/clearpath-forward-li... probably still uses its bespoke languages ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems#ALGOL ) in places.

I wonder how much people who still write these languages are paid? I feel like it is one extreme or the other. You are rolling in it or you just don't know any better.

My WAG is that they might have handcuffs of 2x mainstream, but aren't "rolling in it".

Unlike K (or the APLs in general), all these languages are pidgin algol, hence not that difficult to train.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

#7
Do you have any interest in academic languages?

After a half a century or so without, BCPL recently got floats (for a flight simulator): https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/BCPL.html

I prefer the author's MCPL: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/MCPL.html but have no idea if anyone is currently using it.

[Edit: looks like Martin backported pattern matching from MCPL into BCPL ca. Oct 2022, so that's recent signs of life for both strains!]

Re: Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

#8
post #5

K

Whoa, I work at Crunchy Data. We focus on Postgres, but this K and KX family is wild. Reading about how it is used for Formula 1 data analytics

cf https://t3x.org/klong/ for an even-smaller-audience relative in the family.

poke around the t3x.org domain for more small-audience languages.

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