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Tabloid: The Clickbait Headline Programming Language(tabloid.vercel.app)
322 points by sadeshmukh 4 days ago | 47 comments
  • lxgr4 days ago

    Missed opportunity to title the post/submission “Will this programming language revolutionize software development?” :)

    • nine_k4 days ago |parent

      I hope error messages say

        YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU'LL SEE IN LINE ${line_number}
      • halapro4 days ago |parent

        Errors should be thrown as TRULY EXCEPTIONAL

      • RobotToaster3 days ago |parent

        PROGRAMMER DESTROYED BY FACTS AND SYNTAX

        • throwup2383 days ago |parent

          Exception claps back at programmer.

      • Dilettante_3 days ago |parent

        [GONE {errortype}!]

    • cyrusradfar3 days ago |parent

      I actually felt pretty impressed they kept to the non-clickbait standard of the community and still crushed the post :)

  • gnabgib4 days ago

    Popular in:

    2020 (245 points, 38 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24578749

    2024 (217 points, 29 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40964261

    • moritzwarhier3 days ago |parent

      I didn't think some keywords could make me have fun but they did :D

      Maybe I should use macros like this for productive work to make sure programming stays engaging and entertaining!

        EXPERTS CLAIM SECRET_CODE TO BE 129
      
        DISCOVER HOW TO MESS WITH NUMBER
        RUMOR HAS IT
          EXPERTS CLAIM RESULT TO BE NUMBER MODULO 2
          WHAT IF RESULT IS ACTUALLY 0
            SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT NUMBER DIVIDED BY 2
          LIES!
            SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT (NUMBER TIMES 3) PLUS 1
        END OF STORY
        
        EXPERTS CLAIM ITERATION TO BE 0
        DISCOVER HOW TO DEEP_RESEARCH WITH NUMBER
        RUMOR HAS IT
          EXPERTS CLAIM ITERATION TO BE ITERATION PLUS 1
          EXPERTS CLAIM RESULT TO BE MESS OF NUMBER
          WHAT IF RESULT IS ACTUALLY 1 RUMOR HAS IT
            SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT ITERATION
          END OF STORY
          LIES!
            SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT DEEP_RESEARCH OF RESULT
        END OF STORY 
      
        EXPERTS CLAIM RESULT TO BE DEEP_RESEARCH OF SECRET_CODE
      
        YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS (((("shocking fact about innocious number discovered: " PLUS SECRET_CODE) PLUS " takes a whopping ") PLUS RESULT) PLUS " steps to reach 1")
      
        PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE
      • omoikane3 days ago |parent

        Minor patch before calling DEEP_RESEARCH to make it interactive:

           EXPERTS CLAIM SECRET_CODE TO BE LATEST NEWS ON 'Innocious number?'
        • moritzwarhier3 days ago |parent

          Good one! It would be disingenuous to name it DEEP_RESEARCH without incorporating LATEST NEWS. And what could be a better source of news than the user?

  • k3104 days ago

    DETAILS AT [11]

    [11] https://github.com/thesephist/tabloid/blob/master/README.md#...

  • illusive40804 days ago

    Missed opportunity for loops to be

    BREAKING NEWS … KEEP READING TO DISCOVER

  • Ancapistani4 days ago

    How about CONSIDERED HARMFUL as a postfix negation operator?

    • ljm3 days ago |parent

      Perhaps UK centric but I’d also consider:

      IN BOOST TO x — increment x by 1

      IN BLOW TO x — decrement by 1

      Throw in ‘BAN THIS SICK FILTH’ as a way to throw an exception.

      Of course, the absence of SLAMS and SNUBBED are notable. They should fit in somewhere.

      • dspilletta day ago |parent

        Perhaps MORAL QUESTION / BAN THIS SICK FILTH / JUSTIFY IF BY ONE OF OURS/ AT THE END OF THE DAY for try/throw/catch/finally.

  • Jeremy10264 days ago

    BREAKING NEWS! This is the perfect amount of stupid. I'm going to see if I can't convince my team to convert our codebase over ASAP. FOLLOW ME to find out how it goes.

    • swyx4 days ago |parent

      you forgot to

      PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE

      now the program doesnt terminate

  • NamlchakKhandro4 days ago

    Now we just need the companion turing complete languages:

    Thunderfoot - write screenplays for youtube videos debunking articles written in Tabloid

    Fisker - Writes troll posts to discord/irc/steam community to highlight how awesome TOPIC in AWESOME ARTICLE written in Tabloid is

    Shitlist - Generates awesomelists repos on github for TOPIC

    • wartywhoa234 days ago |parent

      .BOT - Controls botfarms with built-in shill primitives on the X virtual machine, successor to BitMusk

  • noduerme4 days ago

    This is refreshingly ridiculous.

  • dbacar4 days ago

    The title of the post should have been "SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT".

  • halapro4 days ago

    I'm more of a KTHXBYE kinda guy.

  • Kye3 days ago

    The natural complement to LOLCODE.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCODE

  • gnarlouse4 days ago

    Missed opportunity:

    The joke should be that regardless of the program you write, nothing happens. No real signal, just like most real clickbait content.

  • arendtio4 days ago

    I think it could be improved by ADDING A FEATURE with multiple texts for the same mechanic.

    Less repetitive == MORE AWESOME

    And of course, harder to learn/understand.

  • jonplackett4 days ago

    This is the heart and soul of hacker news

    • nython4 days ago |parent

      I thought that was maison d'errorier

  • hunterpayne4 days ago

    So brainrot and brainfuck had a baby?

  • cat-whisperer4 days ago

    If you make sure it follows the style of COBOL. we can document it in the history books!

    • zoom66284 days ago |parent

      I look forward to the implementation of the TACO instruction.

  • fjfaase4 days ago

    I used this language in a workshop on parser construction at MCH2022. The particepants where asked to construct the grammar for the language, which proved harder than I had expected for most of them.

  • paultopia4 days ago

    It’s been too long since something like this has happened. Kudos.

  • csmantle4 days ago

    This would benefit from combining the literal rules from TrumpScript [0]:

    > All numbers must be strictly greater than 1 million. The small stuff is inconsequential to us.

    [0]: https://github.com/samshadwell/TrumpScript

    • 4 days ago |parent
      [deleted]
  • holysoles4 days ago

    Love the energy and keyword selections. But also probably a great exercise to have gone through that I've always considered doing

  • BrenBarn4 days ago

    Write amazing programs with this one weird trick

  • arvigeus4 days ago

    Not written in Rust? Instant pass!

  • hamasho4 days ago

    Love `TOTALLY RIGHT` and `COMPLETELY WRONG` as boolean, but `TRUTH` and `FAKE NEWS` sounds better. Too much social media consumption makes me feel that "truth" or "fact" are kinda sarcastic.

    It also reminds me TrumpScript: https://github.com/samshadwell/TrumpScript

    • kruffalon4 days ago |parent

      But... Which one of TRUTH and FAKE NEWS is the equivalent of boolean TRUE and FALSE respectively????

      The original options are more clear imo, even though they show their age.

      • hamasho4 days ago |parent

        You're right, I'm not sure neither... Probably it should be FACT and ALTERNATIVE FACT and no one knows what means what.

  • artemonster3 days ago

    Dereferencing pointers: „click here to find out more“

  • zamadatix4 days ago

    This gave me a laugh! Some variation of "the Top Five Most Popular Quirks and Features" from the description could be a good way to define arrays on size n (e.g. perhaps numerical instead of Five).

    • Dilettante_3 days ago |parent

      "n WEIRD INTEGERS YOU WON'T BELIEVE ARE REAL!"

  • AbuAssar4 days ago

    this is hilarious, thanks for the laughs!

  • olivierestsage3 days ago

    And That's a Good Thing

  • dcdc1234 days ago

    I love it.