The A-Z of Programming Languages: Shakespeare

[Craig Anslow]

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/391510/a-z_programming_languages_shakespeare/

In an interview, Swedish programmers Jon Aslund and Karl Wiberg said
they created the Shakespeare Programming Language (SPL) in one night
while they were studying at the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm. Although SPL was not created for mainstream use, the
programmers say it has experienced some popularity due to the fact
that its source code resembles Shakespeare's plays. The programmers
decided to base their programming language on Shakespeare's writing
style because it was a structured, well-defined form that would not be
expected to be used to design a programming language, yet was still
recognizable to most people, according to Wiberg. SPL is part of a
class of programming languages known as esoteric programming
languages, which are not meant to be seriously useful. One major
application was an SPL program enacted by humans, in the form of a
video that featured an introductory presentation at HOPL-III, ACM's
third History of Programming Languages Conference in 2007. Since SPL
is an esoteric language, it represents a design experiment for people
interested in programming languages, Wiberg says. Although the
developers have not added to SPL since its creation, other users can
add new features to the language. In the future, the developers hope
that SPL will be used to inspire other new languages that become
dominant in the industry by changing the way software is written

Cheers Craig
http://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/Events/PLATEAU/