"... because the Bible explicitly forbids object worship."
August 8, 2022 6:47 AM Subscribe
Genesis is an interpreted, procedural, and Turing-complete Paleo-Hebrew programming language. Move over, APL; Genesis code is written almost entirely in a Unicode block which pretty much nobody uses. Other than the linguistic elements, though, it's not structurally too esoteric, and has the usual selection of data, flow-control, and subroutine structures (no objects or classes, though).
Found via Language Log.
Is there a recommended font for viewing the Genesis GitHub page? Pretty much all of the characters are rendering as either empty rectangles or six solid horizontal lines (something like ䷀), which does give me an idea for an esoteric programming language based on the I Ching...
posted by jedicus at 7:09 AM on August 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jedicus at 7:09 AM on August 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
On my system, it's getting rendered in Segoe UI Historic, which I guess is built-in to Windows 10.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:28 AM on August 8, 2022
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:28 AM on August 8, 2022
jedicus: All of the non-ASCII characters are from the Phoenician block, U+10900 through U+1091F, which were added in Unicode 5.0 (a 2006 revision). They seem to be pretty standard characters in my fonts, but I run a Linux system so maybe it's unusually completionist on Unicode. (BTW, if you do make a hexagram-driven esoteric language, U+4DC0 through U+4DFF is the block you're looking for.)
posted by jackbishop at 7:30 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jackbishop at 7:30 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
The post title is from the FAQ, which is worth a read in full because it's cracking me up.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:32 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 7:32 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh no, I've read Snow Crash, I know how this ends.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:39 AM on August 8, 2022 [15 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 7:39 AM on August 8, 2022 [15 favorites]
Why are you running an interpreted language over an interpreted language?
"Wherefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned"
And on this theme, perhaps this is what he's thinking:
‘The best thing we can do today to JavaScript is to retire it,’ says JSON creator Douglas Crockford
posted by sammyo at 7:40 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Wherefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned"
And on this theme, perhaps this is what he's thinking:
‘The best thing we can do today to JavaScript is to retire it,’ says JSON creator Douglas Crockford
posted by sammyo at 7:40 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
This really emphasizes that the vast majority of programming is built on the back of if/then.
posted by jabah at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by jabah at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
In case anyone was worried that this is another TempleOS, this FAQ should make it clear which side of Poe's law this falls on:
Why not use Modern Hebrew?
If you are able to program in this language, I have failed.
posted by firechicago at 7:53 AM on August 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
Why not use Modern Hebrew?
If you are able to program in this language, I have failed.
posted by firechicago at 7:53 AM on August 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
I just want to know if it'll do what Nintendon't.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:54 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:54 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
‘The best thing we can do today to JavaScript is to retire it,’ says JSON creator Douglas Crockford
The guy who wrote a whole damn book on the good parts of JavaScript thinks we should get rid of it? Well, shit, I don't think a stronger condemnation is possible.
posted by a car full of lions at 8:03 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
The guy who wrote a whole damn book on the good parts of JavaScript thinks we should get rid of it? Well, shit, I don't think a stronger condemnation is possible.
posted by a car full of lions at 8:03 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Y’all. You guys. I had a flashback to “The Bible Code” from the 1990s, and clicked the links expecting to find that the text from the first part of the Pentateuch had somehow been translated into machine instructions.
Instead it is Brainfuck but with squiggles from an unfamiliar-to-me character set instead of punctuation as the instructions.
I’m not sure how I feel about my misunderstanding.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:10 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Instead it is Brainfuck but with squiggles from an unfamiliar-to-me character set instead of punctuation as the instructions.
I’m not sure how I feel about my misunderstanding.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:10 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
This really emphasizes that the vast majority of programming is built on the back of if/then.
You can always tell when the people who paid attention in the theory classes show up at the job, and if you can get to a set of turing-complete primitives you can get anywhere. Even just "xor" is plenty.
The basis of that terrifying iMessage hack a while back - where somebody figured out how to trick an old image-processing subsystem in iOS into becoming an XOR gate with access to some tiny chunk of memory, which in turn meant that you could having it become little tiny virtual machine, silently running in that slot of memory your computer had allocated to decompressing PDF.
posted by mhoye at 8:19 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
You can always tell when the people who paid attention in the theory classes show up at the job, and if you can get to a set of turing-complete primitives you can get anywhere. Even just "xor" is plenty.
The basis of that terrifying iMessage hack a while back - where somebody figured out how to trick an old image-processing subsystem in iOS into becoming an XOR gate with access to some tiny chunk of memory, which in turn meant that you could having it become little tiny virtual machine, silently running in that slot of memory your computer had allocated to decompressing PDF.
posted by mhoye at 8:19 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Even just "xor" is plenty.
It's NAND gates all the way down.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:30 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's NAND gates all the way down.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:30 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Once sin comes into the world can cos and tan be far behind?
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:38 AM on August 8, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:38 AM on August 8, 2022 [12 favorites]
You can build a Turing tarpit out of MOVs.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:28 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:28 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
"As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" - Proverbs 26:11. I guess this is especially true in a loop.
Well, at least the examples don't include regular expressions.
posted by SPrintF at 10:05 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, at least the examples don't include regular expressions.
posted by SPrintF at 10:05 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
A little disappointed that it doesn't support boustrophedon-endianess, but not enough to make a pull request.
posted by phooky at 11:40 AM on August 8, 2022
posted by phooky at 11:40 AM on August 8, 2022
"Middle-endian ought to be enough for anybody."
posted by rhizome at 1:46 PM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 1:46 PM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was thinking this must be the second temple, firechicago.
posted by condour75 at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2022
posted by condour75 at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2022
רופן מיר ווען זיי איבערזעצן עס אויף יידיש.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:56 PM on August 8, 2022
posted by kirkaracha at 3:56 PM on August 8, 2022
The rest of the FAQ is pretty great as well
Why not make an object-oriented language?
This suggestion makes me consternated. Genesis will never be object-oriented because the Bible explicitly forbids object worship:
"These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame. []Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see. Their minds are shut, and they cannot think. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, 'Why, it’s just a block of wood! I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?'"
posted by Infracanophile at 4:31 PM on August 8, 2022
Why not make an object-oriented language?
This suggestion makes me consternated. Genesis will never be object-oriented because the Bible explicitly forbids object worship:
"These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame. []Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see. Their minds are shut, and they cannot think. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, 'Why, it’s just a block of wood! I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?'"
posted by Infracanophile at 4:31 PM on August 8, 2022
Yay, I added the 666th star!
posted by wilberforce at 8:47 PM on August 8, 2022
posted by wilberforce at 8:47 PM on August 8, 2022
For now at least.
posted by wilberforce at 8:47 PM on August 8, 2022
posted by wilberforce at 8:47 PM on August 8, 2022
There's a squonk joke in here, but I can't work it out.
posted by Wild_Eep at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2022
posted by Wild_Eep at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2022
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posted by rikschell at 6:57 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]