HOW TO TELL WHICH PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE YOU'RE USING
The proliferation of modern programming languages (all of which seem to
have stolen countless features from one another) sometimes makes it
difficult to remember what language you're currently using. This guide
is offered as a public service to help programmers who find themselves
in such dilemmas.
C
You shoot yourself in the foot.
C++
You accidentally create a dozen instances of yourself and shoot them
all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible
since you can't tell which are bitwise copies and which are just
pointing at others and saying, "That's me, over there."
FORTRAN
You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes,
then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets,
you continue anyway because you have no exception-handling ability.
Modula2
After realizing that you can't actually accomplish anything in this
language, you shoot yourself in the head.
COBOL
Using a COLT 45 HANDGUN, AIM gun at LEG.FOOT, THEN place
ARM.HAND.FINGER. on HANDGUN.TRIGGER and SQUEEZE. THEN
return HANDGUN to HOLSTER. CHECK whether shoelace needs
to be retied.
LISP
You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which
you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which
you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which
you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which
you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds ....
BASIC
Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On big systems,
continue until entire lower body is waterlogged.
FORTH
Foot in yourself shoot.
APL
You hear a gunshot, and there's a bullet hole in your foot,
but you don't remember enough linear algebra to figure out
what the hell happeened.
Pascal
The compiler won't let you shoot yourself in the foot.
SNOBOL
If you succeed, shoot yourself in the left foot.
If you fail, shoot yourself in the right foot.
Concurrent Euclid
You shoot yourself in somebody else's foot.
HyperTalk
Put the first bullet of the gun into foot left of leg of you.
Answer the result.
Motif
You spend days writing a UIL description of your foot, the trajectory,
the bullet, and the intricate scrollwork on the ivory handles of the
gun. When you finally get around to pulling the trigger, the gun jams.
Unix
% ls foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o
% rm *.o rm:.o:
No such file or directory
% ls
%
Paradox
Not only can you shoot yourself in the foot, your users can too.
Revelation
You'll be able to shoot yourself in the foot just as soon
as you figure out what all these bullets are for.
Visual Basic
You'll shoot yourself in the foot, but you'll have so
much fun doing it that you won't care.
Prolog
You tell your program you want to be shot in the foot. The program
figures out how to do it, but the syntax doesn't allow it to explain.
370 JCL
You send your foot down to MIS with a 4000-page document explaining
how you want it to be shot. Three years later, your foot comes back
deep-fried.
Ada
After correctly packaging your foot, you attempt to concurrently
load the gun, pull the trigger, scream and shoot yourself in the foot.
When you try, however, you discover that your foot is of the wrong
type.
Assembly
You try to shoot yourself in the foot only to discover you
must first reinvent the gun, the bullet, and your foot.