Codyssey-The Ode of the Hidden Codes
From the common man to a high profile software engineer, when you ask them about programming languages, the first thing that they’d think probably think of is Python, Java, or C, which is justified because these languages are widely used in building some of the world’s most popular platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and whatnot. However, the world of programming languages isn’t limited to just these, unbeknownst to many of us, lies a treasure trove of the forgotten speeches of the virtual world. Many of these forgotten languages, may seem trivial in general, but learning them opens up a whole new dimension in the journey to achieving an insane level of mastery in programming. Let’s delve into the cryptic universes of some of them and explore their intricacies.
1.RUST:
First up we have Rust, a high-level and general-purpose language that allows for the usage of procedural and object-oriented concepts. Rust was developed by Graydon Hoare and first came to light in 2010. It bears a structural syntax similar to that of C and is mainly used in the construction of systems requiring high levels of safety and concurrency. Let’s take a look at a sample code snippet from Rust :
CODE:
fn main() {
let num = 10;
println!(“The value of the number is : {}”,num);
}
OUTPUT:
The value of the number is : 10
Here fn main() { . . . . . }, is the syntax for the main function, within which all code is assumed to be the base. The line ‘let num =10’ declares an integer variable called num and is assigned a value 10. The statement println!( . . . . . ) is used to display standard and primary output to the user. Output strings to be displayed using this statement must be enclosed within double quotation marks. The pair of curly braces in it formats the output string, to display the value of whatever comes after the comma in the println! statement, in place of itself. Each singular line of code is terminated with a semicolon.
2. JULIA
Now that we’ve gotten to briefly interact with the ways of Rust, let’s move on to another eclipsed language, called Julia. This quaint virtual dialect is a high-level, general-purpose, and dynamic language, developed by Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, Viral B. Shah, and Alan Edelman and released in 2012. It is used mainly for the computation of scientific and numerical studies but is also used for low-level systems and web programming. Given below is a sample code snippet of Julia, that we’re going to analyze :
CODE:
num = 10
@printf(“The value of the number is : %d”,num)
OUTPUT:
The value of the number is : 10
The line ‘num = 10’, creates an integer variable with a value of 10. The @printf( . . . . . ) prints a line of output that has been formatted. Within the double quotation marks, we include format specifiers that’d indicate the replacement of the specifier with the value after the comma in the @printf statement. Output strings to be displayed using this statement must be enclosed within double quotation marks. Here the format specifier is %d, where the letter after the percentage symbol indicates the type of data that’ll be introduced, and here the letter ‘d’ implies the presence of an integer, which in our case is num. We do not need to use the main function to classify our base code, and there is nothing to be done specially for the termination of code lines.
3. SWIFT:
Let’s move on to a programming language developed by none other than Apple Inc, called Swift. It was created to provide a versatile language for cloud services scaling, system programming and so much more. Swift was made public in 2014 and is characterized by its multi-paradigm and general-purpose features. Let’s parse through a program made using Swift, to get to know it better.
CODE:
var num = 10
print(“The value of the number is : \(num)”)
OUTPUT:
The value of the number is : 10
The line ‘var num = 10’ uses the var keyword to declare a variable named num, that has a value of ten. The statement print( . . . . . ) displays whatever is contained within the parentheses, that is enclosed within double quotation marks. In the resultant output, the output string is modified using the \(num) component, which replaces itself with the value of the variable given within it. Similar to how Julia is structured, we do not need to use a main function to classify our base code, and there is nothing to be done specially for the termination of code lines.
4. DART:
Finally, let’s take a peek into the world of Dart, a language unknown to most, but is used extensively to build essential apps for the tech giant, Google. Dart is a class-based, static, object-oriented language designed by Lars Bak and Kasper Lund, and revealed to the public in 2011. It comprises syntax parallel to that of C and is used widely to build web and mobile applications. Here’s a sample code snippet from Dart:
CODE:
void main() {
int num = 10;
print(‘The value of the number is : $num’);
}
OUTPUT:
The value of the number is : 10
Similar to Rust, in Dart, we encapsulate the base code within a main function, and here it is void main() { . . . . . }. The void part specifies that the main function will not return anything explicitly for the output. The line ‘int num = 10’ creates a variable of name num with value 10 and type integer as specified by the keyword int. The print( . . . . . ) statement displays the primary output. Output strings to be displayed using this statement must be enclosed within single quotation marks. The syntax $num, is used to format the output, where the value of the variable specified after the dollar sign, is what will replace this syntax is the result. Each singular line of code is terminated with a semicolon as in Rust.
Even though Rust, Julia, Swift, and Dart hold many pearls of knowledge, many more languages are hidden in the shadows of the more popular ones, like Erlang, C#, Haskell, Perl LOLCODE, Shakespeare, and whatnot. Once you dive into their spheres of code, you’ll be immensely surprised with the feats you can accomplish.
There’s no better way to learn something than playing a game, so test out your knowledge of this hidden virtual domain of languages with Codyssey. It’ll take you on an adventure through the depths of the unknown languages, where you’ll put your skills against a volley of code snippets from this cryptic world. At the end of this journey, the victors will be awarded special prizes for their phenomenal expertise. So what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars for 20/08/2021 and gear up for one insane rollercoaster ride with IEEE WIE’s Codyssey!
