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Kona, an open-source implementation of the K language (github.com/kevinlawler)
7 points by kazuya on Jan 5, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments


Not only does the target language read like line noise[0], so does the interpreter source code. I mean, seriously: https://github.com/kevinlawler/kona/blob/master/k.c

Can someone please confirm that this isn't an IOCCC entry?

[0] I kid. K's actually pretty readable, for a language in its class.


I can confirm this isn't an IOCCC entry. It looks like obscurantism, but it isn't. It's C code written as terse as possible, not as confusingly as possible. It takes a while to get used to. It's worth it.

There is significant overhead involved in learning to write C like this. There are also significant gains. It's similar to learning to use vim.

Last I counted the source was something like 250K bytes and still very manageable. If it had been written in a traditional style it would be many times that size and much harder to work with.


Nice! One of my friends works with K and I've always wanted to play around with it but licenses are super expensive. I need a manual now though :)


To answer myself, there's a lot of material here: https://anonymous:anonymous@code.kx.com/trac




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