Strengthen your overall coding skills by exploring the wonderful, wild, and often weird world of esoteric languages (esolangs).Strange Code starts with a dive into the underlying history of programming, covering the early computer-science concepts, like Turing machines and Turing completeness, that led to the languages we use today. It then explores the realm of “atypical” programming languages, introducing you to the out-of-the-box thinking that comes from these unusual approaches to coding. Later chapters address the even more unusual esolangs, nearly all of which are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Finally, author Ron Kneusel helps you develop and use two entirely new programming languages. You may not apply these languages in your day job, but this one-of-a-kind book will motivate you to think differently about what it means to express thought through code, while discovering the far-flung boundaries of programming. You’ll learn:

Part I: On Programming LanguagesChapter 1: A Cherry-Picked Review of Programming LanguagesChapter 2: The Essentials of Programming LanguagesChapter 3: Turing Machines and Turing CompletenessPart II: Atypical Programming LanguagesChapter 4: ForthChapter 5: SNOBOLChapter 6: CLIPSPart III: Esoteric Programming LanguagesChapter 7: The ABCs of ABCsChapter 8: FRACTRANChapter 9: PietChapter 10: BrainfuckChapter 11: BefungePart IV: Homegrown EsolangsChapter 12: FilskaChapter 13: Using FilskaChapter 14: FireflyChapter 15: Using FireflyChapter 16: Going FurtherAppendix A: Genetic Programming with Firefly