# Programmers: How many dead languages do you know?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programmers-how-many-dead-languages-do-you-know/524563>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 11, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programmers-how-many-dead-languages-do-you-know/524563 "2010-01-11T21:48:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programmers-how-many-dead-languages-do-you-know/524563/61 "2010-01-19T21:48:36Z")

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I once knew both AML (Arc Macro Language) and AVENUE. Both were scripting languages for ArcInfo, and were abandoned when ESRI went to VB.

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**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programmers-how-many-dead-languages-do-you-know/524563/62 "2010-01-20T03:00:38Z")

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> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#):
>
> I said it before, but it bears repeating:
> 
> Reverse Polish Notation is a wonderful, arcane, thing and it’s sad that society at large will lose it sooner rather than later.

If for Yoda not, true, this would be. 😉

Still have my HP15-C. For what its worth.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/programmers-how-many-dead-languages-do-you-know/524563/63 "2010-01-20T09:27:31Z")

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> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#):
>
> Reverse Polish Notation is a wonderful, arcane, thing and it’s sad that society at large will lose it sooner rather than later.

We’ll never lose RPN because of Forth: Forth is the lichen, or slime mold, or happily incestuous yet diverse family of bacterial species of the embedded world.

If a piece of hardware can run any software at all, it either has run a Forth system or it’s about to. A lot of languages are love-it-or-hate-it; Forth is a hate-it-or-implement-it language: You either have nothing to do with it because it’s insane or you have spent at least one afternoon implementing your own variant.

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