#4chan #mudkips .net 2.0 ^_^ code coding development esoteric fun funny humor humour interesting internet irc language languages lol lolcat lolcats lolcode meme parody programming software technology 2007

My tags:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LOLCODE is an esoteric programming language inspired by the language expressed in examples of the lolcat Internet meme.^[1] The language was created in 2007 by Adam Lindsay, researcher at the Computing Department of Lancaster University.^[2]

The language is not clearly defined in terms of operator priorities and correct syntax, but several functioning interpreters and compilers already exist. The language has been proven Turing-complete by the implementation of a Brainfuck interpreter.^[3]

Contents 1 Language structure and examples 2 Implementations 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Language structure and examples

LOLCODE is written in heavily compressed (shortened) English Internet slang, and a person who understands this slang can often understand a LOLCODE program without prior experience. Here follows a Hello world program and a simple program to output a file to a monitor. Highly accessible, similar code was printed in the Houston Chronicle.^[1]

Example 1:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE [4]

Code	Comment
HAI	In all LOLCODE programs, HAI introduces the program.
CAN HAS [FILE]?	In many programming languages, one of the first statements will be a library inclusion for common functions such as input and output. Typically this is included by a call such as #include <stdio.h> [stdio standing for standard input/output library]. This command is a tongue in cheek corruption of that, asking if a file is obtainable, obtaining it if possible, and raising an exception if not[5]. It is there primarily for authenticity — in fact, it is ignored in current implementations of LOLCODE.
VISIBLE [MESSAGE]	prints a message to the screen.
KTHXBYE	HAI introduces the program, so KTHXBYE (meaning "Okay — thanks — bye!") terminates it.

Example 2:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
PLZ OPEN FILE "LOLCATS.TXT"?
    AWSUM THX
        VISIBLE FILE
    O NOES
        INVISIBLE "ERROR!"
KTHXBYE [4]

In this example, commands to open a file (PLZ OPEN FILE "NAME"? — "Please try to open a file?"), and error handling (AWSUM THX — "Awesome, thanks!", and O NOES — "Oh no!") are introduced.

Other commands include I HAS A variable for declaring variables, LOL variable R value ("laughter [at] variable [is/are/being] value") for assigning them, sending error messages to the front end via INVISIBLE instead of VISIBLE, and BTW ("by the way") to denote a comment, making the parser ignore the rest of the line. Loops are created with IM IN YR label (from an internet meme "I'm in your ___"), and ended with KTHX ("okay-thanks!"). Loops lack counters or conditions, and thus do not cease inherently. They must be manually broken with the GTFO (deprecated in favor of ENUF – "enough" in Leetspeak) ^[6] command. Loops can also be ended with the conditional IZ command:

Example 3:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
   UP VAR!!1
   IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHX
   VISIBLE VAR
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE  [4]

This simple program displays the numbers 1–10 and terminates (as of specification 1.0). The same program as of specification 1.2 is (assuming VAR starts at 0):

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
IM IN YR LOOP UPPIN YR VAR TIL BOTHSAEM VAR AN 10
    VISIBLE SUM OF VAR AN 1
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE

[edit] Implementations

The first^[7] LOLCODE implemenation was a PHP parser^[8] written by Jeff Jones. The parser's website was also the first website using LOL Code as an actual web scripting language. Being open source with a BSD style license, it has been forked and used by multiple websites to implement LOLCODE scripting. The winning Pecha Kucha presentation^[9] at PHP Works^[10] 2008 was about this parser.

There is a .NET compiler for LOLCODE written by Nick Johnson,^[11] and featured in Microsoft developer training seminars, TechEd 2007 Conference (Australia).^[12][13][14]

PL/LOLCODE, a project headed by Josh Tolley, makes LOLCODE available as a server-side programming language inside PostgreSQL.^[15]

Microsoft Dynamic Language Runtime has an implementation of LOLCODE for testing purposes.^[16]

A JavaScript interpreter is also available ^[17]

There is also a LOLCODE compiler included with the Parrot virtual machine as one of the languages demonstrating the use of Parrot's compiler tools.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• LOLCODE Official website
• LOLPython
• The new fame: Internet celebrity, CNN article