Gift ideas

Gifts for language fans

Know someone who loves language? Pick their favourite topic for gift ideas, with a fact to share when they open it.

  • ActionScript

    ActionScript 3.0 introduced a more robust, object-oriented programming model compared to its predecessors, significantly improving code organization and maintainability for complex Flash applications.

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  • Ada

    Ada Lovelace, considered the first computer programmer, predicted that computers could one day compose music.

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  • Apex

    Octane's stim uses adrenaline, but he's also missing a leg.

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  • Assembly

    Assembly language code is often written with mnemonics, which are short abbreviations for machine instructions, making it slightly more human-readable than pure machine code (which is just a sequence of numbers).

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  • AutoLISP

    AutoLISP, despite its name, isn't actually a dialect of Lisp; it's a custom implementation specifically designed for AutoCAD.

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  • AWK

    AWK's name is derived from the initials of its creators: Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan.

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  • Ballerina

    Ballerinas often wear pointe shoes that are only used for a few hours before they become worn out and need replacing.

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  • BASIC

    BASIC's name is an acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

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  • Bengali Script

    The Bengali script is written from left to right, unlike many other Indic scripts which are written in a right-to-left direction.

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  • Boo

    Boo the Pomeranian's real name was Boo.

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  • C PlusPlus (C++)

    C++ was originally called C with Classes when Bjarne Stroustrup began developing it in 1979 as an extension of the C programming language.

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  • C Sharp (C#)

    C# doesn't have a preprocessor directive like `#define` for creating simple constants in the same way C++ does; it uses `const` or `readonly` fields instead.

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  • C Shell

    The C shell (`csh`) was originally developed for the VAX/VMS operating system before being ported to Unix.

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  • Ceylon

    Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, was once the world's primary source of cinnamon.

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  • Chapel

    Chapel's syntax draws inspiration from both Fortran and C++.

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  • CLIPS

    CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) was originally developed in the 1980s at NASA, making it a surprisingly old piece of AI technology still in use today.

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  • Clojure

    Clojure's syntax is heavily influenced by Lisp, making it incredibly consistent and allowing for powerful code manipulation via macros.

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  • COBOL

    COBOL's English-like syntax, designed for readability, ironically made it prone to verbose and sometimes confusingly structured code.

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  • Common Lisp

    Common Lisp's standard library includes a package for generating and manipulating pseudorandom numbers, but it doesn't define a standard random number *seed* mechanism. The way the generator is initialized is implementation-dependent.

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  • Crystal

    Crystals can be used to store data, a technology being explored for incredibly high-density data storage solutions.

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  • Curl

    The Curl programming language's name is a recursive acronym standing for "Curly Recursive Language."

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  • Curl Script

    Curl scripts can be surprisingly complex, even though they often start as simple one-liners, allowing for sophisticated interactions with web servers and APIs beyond just simple GET requests.

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  • D Language (D)

    D's garbage collection can be disabled, allowing for deterministic memory management and fine-grained control, though at the cost of manual memory management.

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  • Dart

    Dart's name is a pun; it's a play on words related to "darting" around the web and "dart boards"—referencing its initial design for web development and its ability to quickly deliver results.

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