13 februari 2008

LOLCode: 2 1337 4 u n00bs

Reading the blog of Scott Hanselman I found a post on LOLCODE. LOLCODE is a simple and silly programming language, based on 1337-speak (a gamers/hackers slang). There is even an official site on LOLCODE, which has several semi-official specifications of the language. You have to see a fragment of LOLCODE to understand what it is all about. Here's a hello world example:

HAI

  CAN HAS STDIO?

  I HAS A greetz ITZ "Hello World"

  VISIBLE greetz

KTHXBYE

lolcode

Some characteristics of the language:

  • Lots of keyword that don't make sense unless you are into that particular scene or have them explained
  • Statements are delimited by new-lines
  • A program is a single routine
  • Functions and subroutines are not available
  • Not case-sensitive
  • Offers four variable types: string, int, array and object

If you want to play around with LOLCODE you can download a .NET implementation on the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) made by John Lam and his team. You need to download several additional tools and generators. I have already gone through the trouble of doing that. The attachment includes a Visual Studio 2008 solution that has all sources of the LOLCODE compiler and an accompanying set of generators and libraries. You can edit the Demo.lc file in the solution folder and simply hit Ctrl+F5 to give it a spin.

Be warned though: No IntelliSense, debugging support or whatever. You are on your own here. Still good for a bit of Friday afternoon fun.

What I found particularly interesting is that the DLR implementation shows how to build a language compiler of some sorts. There are some generators involved that parse language definition files (Parser.y and Scanner.l to be exact), but to a guy that has no formal Computer Science background (like myself) a nice chance to see what compilers are about.

Here is my sample program that covers a lot of the possible statements. See if you can figure out what the program does. If not, check below to help you understand how things work in LOLCODE:

HAI

  VISIBLE "I IZ IN YR BRAIN PICKING A NUMBAR"

  I HAS A numbar

  CAN HAS System?

  NJU Random ON System

  I HAS A rnd ITZ IT

  COL Next ON rnd WIT 100

  LOL numbar R IT

  VISIBLE "WANNA GUEZ? (CALL 'enuf' TO BE A QUITAH)"

  I HAS A guez

  I HAS A countr ITZ 0

  IM IN YR loop

    UPZ countr!!1 

    GIMMEH guez

    IZ guez LIEK "enuf"?

      YARLY

        BTW BYES -1 "Loosah"

        GTFO

    KTHX

    IZ guez SMALR numbar?

      YARLY

        VISIBLE "Too low"

      NOWAI

        IZ guez BIGR numbar?

          YARLY

            VISIBLE "Too high"

          NOWAI

            GTFO

        KTHX

    KTHX

  KTHX

  VISIBLE "U DA BOMB, U RULEZ, U R 1337"

  VISIBLE countr

KTHXBYE

Because the specification is not very clear on some stuff, let me provide you with a rough translation table:

Category Statements and keywords LOLCODE example C# translation English with explanation
Program scope HAI
  BYES code message
KTHXBYE		 HAI 
  BYES -1 "Oops"
KTHXBYE
  		static int Main()
{
  return -1;
}		 Hello, Goodbyes
Oke, thanks, goodbye.
Return message not supported in C#
Comments BTW comment
OBTW 
  multi-line comment
TLDR		 BTW must fix this
OBTW this is a
  multi-line comment
TLDR		 // must fix this
/* this is a
  multi-line comment
*/		 (Oh) By the way
Too long, didn't read
IO VISIBLE VISIBLE x Console.WriteLine(x); Show
  GIMMEH [WORD|LETTAR|LINE] GIMMEH x x = Console.ReadLine(); Give me
Assigment LOL variablename ITZ value LOL x R 100 x = 100; (assignment) Laughing Out Loud
R as in "I are happy"
Declaration I HAS A variablename [ITZ initializer] I HAS A x ITZ 100 var x = 100; (declaration) I have a ...
Loops IM IN YR loopname
   ...
KTHX 		IM IN YR akount 
  ...
  GTFO
  ...
KTHX		 while (true)
{
  ...
  break;
}		 I am in your ...
Get the f*ck out
Okay, thanks

Comes from the LOLCATZ pictures. Check some here and here.
Famous World of Warcraft quote:
IM IN YR AKOUNT SHARDING UR PURPLZ
If IZ x SMALR|BIGR|LIEK
  ...
KTHX		 IZ x SMALR 1?
  YARLY
     ...
  KTHX
  NOWAI
    ...
  KTHX
KHTX		 if (x < 1)
{
  ...
}
else
{
  ...
}		 Is x smaller 1. Yeah, really. No way.
Okay, thanks
Smaller, bigger, like (as in equals)
 
Logical operators NOT, OR, XOR, AND x AND y  x && y  Essentially the same 
Integer operations TIEMZ, OVAR, UP, NERF
TIEMZD, OVARZ, UPZ, NERFZ		 UPZ x!!
NERFZ x!!100
x TIEMZ y
x OVER y		 x += 1 (or x++)
x -= 100
x * y
x / y		 Nerf: reduce power
Up: increase. Upz as in "He ups a value"
Times, over
!! comes from the inside joke of !!1!!!1!!!! where someone accidentally releases SHIFT during exclamation marks.
Program scope HAI
  BYES code message
KTHXBYE		 HAI 
  BYES -1 "Oops"
KTHXBYE
  		static int Main()
{
  return -1;
}		 Hello
Goodbyes
Oke, thanks, goodbye.
Method invocation COL methodname ON object WIT x AN y COL Next ON rnd WIT 1000 rnd.Next(1000); Call method with x and y
Object instantiation NJU classname ON namespace NJU Random ON System new System.Random(); Will instantiate a new object
  IT NJU Random ON System
I HAS A rnd ITZ IT		 var rnd = new System.Random(); Refers to result of function call or object instantation on previous line
Importing libraries CAN HAS library? CAN HAS System? Add Reference to System.dll Adds a reference to an assembly

Some other links:

Drop me a line if you have your own bit of LOLCODE written. <3

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Comments

# Ryan Smith said:

So I had my first chance to work with the DLR and LOLCODE today while for a lark I rewrote a solution

woensdag 5 maart 2008 20:24