Daniel Temkin

Hi, I’m the author of the book and arriving (a bit late) to clarify a few things.

Although I discuss esolang history in the Spectrum piece (something I get deeper into on my blog, https://esoteric.codes), the book is a monograph of my esolangs specifically: Folders, Entropy, Olympus and more; some are collected at https://danieltemkin.com/Esolangs. It’s meant to make esolangs approachable, focusing on concept rather than technical aspects of the languages. I wrote it to encourage people to experiment with esolangs and to show the community-based nature of the work: the delightful conversation that happens when another programmer takes your language in a direction you would never have conceived of.

The languages range from fully implemented works to pieces that are not implementable (e.g. Past Tense is a language whose programs are not runnable by definition and would cease to be programs if they were https://github.com/rottytooth/PastTense). There’s one where even articulating a program into words or symbols invalidates it: only unreified thought is valid.

The languages are presented first as prompts. In the second half, I present details on those that are implemented, showing the sometimes surprising results of carrying out the initial idea. I hope it will expand the conversation around esoteric languages as an art form.

It's totally different, yet somehow this reminds me of Daniel Temkin's Entropy language, which is basically a language with bit-rot built into it:

> Entropy is a programming language about giving up control. All data decays as the program runs: each value alters slightly every time it's used, becoming less precise. An Entropy programmer needs to abandon the pursuit of precision which most programming demands -- often working against years of habit -- in order to program effectively. Any output from an Entropy program will be approximate, and the more the data is accessed, the more random it will become. The programmer has, at best, a short window to get his/her idea across before the program corrodes. The program itself is not altered -- so the next time it runs, it is restored to its original condition, only to decay again through its next run.

http://danieltemkin.com/Entropy/

EDIT: I guess it reminds me of Entropy language because deterministic behaviour from chaos is about as opposite in spirit to giving up and embracing decay and entropy as you can get.

Which he has combined with the classic Eliza program[0] to create (imo hilarious) Drunk Eliza:

http://danieltemkin.com/DrunkEliza/

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

I'm always looking for personal sites that are still out there. I love some of the ones she listed. Here are some random ones I found yesterday.

http://merkoba.com/

http://angusnicneven.com/

http://danieltemkin.com/

http://joelcalifa.com/

https://jacky.wtf/

https://www.jacobyyoung.com/about

http://nik.works/

http://web.archive.org/web/20180501202224/https://shiba.computer/

Here are two I found several days ago, but that I am still finding amusing today.

http://coolguy.website/

http://leonbambrick.com/

Please share your personal page links, too.

Even if this list becomes long, that's okay. I will look at it.

> The idea is a possible realization of LANGUAGE 18 from "FORTY-FOUR
ESOLANGS":

a sculptural language

it subtracts from potential algorithms,
making them more specific

a program only states what it doesn't do

This made me want to read the other forty-three proposals for esolangs! Some of them are here [0], buy the book for more.

I'm a bit unclear about how much the book specifies Language 18 (is it really just the three-line prose poem above? Other languages seem to have more detail) and how much came from the author of this post.

[0] https://danieltemkin.com/Esolangs/

Hi, I created this language as part of a series of experiments with bringing aspects of natural language into code. My previous language, Valence (https://danieltemkin.com/Esolangs/Valence), dealt with semantic ambiguity — this one with calligraphy. It avoids an overly logical syntax in favor of compactness and expressiveness.

I’m completing a book of these esolangs for MIT Press this fall including this; not much info yet online yet but here’s the link: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553087/forty-four-esolangs/