INTERCAL

What Does INTERCAL Mean?

The Compiler Language with no Pronounceable Acronym, or INTERCAL, is a programming language developed in the early 1970s by Princeton University students Don Woods and James Lyon. Unlike other computer languages of its time, this one is classified as a parody, with many unnecessary and confusing elements meant to poke fun at the software design conventions of that era. Even the name, INTERCAL, is a parody, since the actual name of the language in no way corresponds to the letters in the acronym.

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Techopedia Explains INTERCAL

As a parody language, INTERCAL has any number of unusual and odd pieces of syntax and methods. These include the use of a $ for a “mingle operator” which was supposed to be a reference to software costs, and a question mark for another operator, which indicated common confusion on the part of the reader. Another strange aspect of this language was a modifier “Please” that was required to be inserted into program multiple times, in order to keep the programming code “polite.” Even in documentation, INTERCAL was a quite unusual language, for example, with the addition of a “tonsil” instead of an appendix at the end of the manual.

Despite its extremely unusual code structure, INTERCAL did function as a capable computer programming language, albeit not a widely used one.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…