$Id: index.html,v 1.2 2004/08/16 03:20:42 kst Exp $
The 99 programming language was inspired by Oliver Schade's 99 Bottles of Beer web site, which has a collection of 621 (at last count) programs in nearly as many programming languages, each of which does exactly one thing: print the lyrics to the classic song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
As I looked over some of the entries, I realized they're all more verbose than they really need to be. There was obviously a great unfulfilled need for a customized programming language in which the "99 Bottles of Beer" program could be implemented less verbosely.
I present here my solution: the 99 Programming Language. The syntax is simple:
The semantic definition is equally simple. A valid 99 program (one with no syntax errors) prints the lyrics to the classic song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
Note that any Unix or Unix-like system has a valid 99 program pre-installed; see "/dev/null".
I've implemented an interpreter for the 99 programming language in Perl; you can download it here. Install it as "99"; adjust the initial "#!" line if your Perl interpreter is not "/usr/bin/perl". To execute a program "foo.99", run "99 foo.99". With no arguments, the interpreter reads a program from standard input.
I've also provided a sample program written in 99. (The file name is "99.99"; the ".99" suffix is recommended, but not required.)
You can see output of the sample program here.
The 99 programming language, the 99 interpreter, and this web
page were written by Keith Thompson; last updated 2004-08-15.
E-mail (obfuscated to foil spammers):
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