Ask HN: What is the most niche programming language that is still written?

by wkingon 1/13/2023, 3:48 PMwith 13 comments

I would love to hear about the programming languages that I have never heard about. I don't mean Assembly or anything that is low-level, but mainstream. Even better if you have an example!

by 082349872349872on 1/13/2023, 4:21 PM

I would not be surprised if TAL is still used for https://www.hpe.com/us/en/servers/nonstop.html boxen.

Similarly, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/clearpath-forward-li... probably still uses its bespoke languages ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems#ALGOL ) in places.

by 082349872349872on 1/13/2023, 6:14 PM

Do you have any interest in academic languages?

After a half a century or so without, BCPL recently got floats (for a flight simulator): https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/BCPL.html

I prefer the author's MCPL: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/MCPL.html but have no idea if anyone is currently using it.

[Edit: looks like Martin backported pattern matching from MCPL into BCPL ca. Oct 2022, so that's recent signs of life for both strains!]

by fhaldridge7on 1/14/2023, 4:29 AM

Check "advent of code" solutions. Some of the people invent their own programming languages to solve problems.

by tothrowawayon 1/14/2023, 7:00 AM

JScript is Microsoft's JavaScript that can run server side. I guess it was a thing in the late 90s and early 00s. The "Click Commerce" web CMS/framework was largely written in it. They pivoted from commerce to medical research, and the software is still being used by dozens of institutions.

by _448on 1/14/2023, 7:01 PM

Pike (https://pike.lysator.liu.se)

by rurbanon 1/15/2023, 7:43 AM

Rexx at IBM, but I guess there are several such internal langs used in similar obscure companies.

by simonblackon 1/14/2023, 7:20 AM

Z80 assembly.

by 2snakeson 1/13/2023, 11:07 PM

Brainfuck lol

by amalgamated_incon 1/13/2023, 4:10 PM

K