Description
Write-only language is also referred to as line noise, suggesting that the code looks like spurious characters from signal noise in the communication line. In such a language it would be more difficult to read, understand, and modify existing source code than to start over and rewrite it from scratch. To modify an existing program to make it more understandable is called code refactoring.
Languages that are often derided as write-only include APL, DDT, Perl, Forth, TECO, and regular expression syntax used in various languages. Attributes that these languages have in common include a large set of operators and a syntax which permits (or encourages) the writing of very dense code. It is also a common feature of esoteric programming languages that strive to have obfuscated code, such as INTERCAL.
Read more about this topic: Write-only Language
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)