i'd have to say ti-basic because you have to enter commands using a menu driven interface that gets horribly tedious after a while.

Maybe it's more "I want to do that, but cisco won't let me"? I agree there are a lot of garbage programatic user interfaces out there.

I wonder what options there are when the initial intention isn't to create a shell, though. I've found myself inching toward a scripting language from what started as an extremely simple config format. The mere addition of run-time parameter substitution and conditionally ignoring config lines took it from a simple config format to a horrendous scripting format. Had it been other than a one-off system I'm sure there would have been demand for control structures at that point, then I would have been screwed. It was a unique scientific application I wrote to work with a specific set of data, so the specifics are a bit complicated to explain.
Kevin Barry

Keep it going. Soon you'll have something convoluted enough to compete with Perl (I am a Perl user).

I'm sure what you say is true of a good many languages, and other software in general. How many of us have written little bits of code for our own selfish purposes, and suddenly it morphed out of control as some mission-critical element that can't be fixed because everything around it would break?

--- rod.

Word up. Example: try to develop in Mikrotik RouterOS scripting language.

And to think it's Linux in the guts there, but the UIs can't be removed

as far as I can remember the horror, in cobol you could do
How could it get more stupid?
Well, maybe POLITE-COBOL

The worst ones I've used are FORTRAN77 (from 90 on it wasnt so bad, but 77 is Satan), and Perl.

Hello suicidaleggroll,
could you explain that? if Perl is your "Worst Language Ever", which one do you prefer and why don't you like Perl?

Markus

Because its next to impossible for somebody who's not an expert in Perl to be able to read and understand anything that's been written. Perl code is such an incoherent mess of symbols that nobody knows what's going on. There isn't a single other language that I've opened some source and exclaimed out loud "what the hell does that line mean?", which seems to be every other line in Perl. You could smack your head on the keyboard and end up with a valid command.

A program written in any language should at least be readable by somebody familiar with programming who isn't an expert in that specific language.

Even after learning Perl (somewhat), I still find myself piecing together strings of 40 random symbols to do something, and 2 days later I have no idea how it works and have to spend half an hour figuring it out.

Well, you're right. The disadvantage of Perl is that you can't read your own code after some weeks if you're not an expert.

Otherwise, Perl is very powerful, and I'm happy that I've learned it, it's often very helpful for me.

Markus

Honestly, if you can't read your own code, then there might be a problem

Yes, as I wrote, this is a problem

When I don't program with Perl for some month (or years, I've started with Perl back in 1994) then I have difficulties to read the code, even my own code.

But the language is worth the trouble.

Markus

That was one of the design goals for COBOL, and someone has already posted an example of how that turned out. I think that too often, how good a programming language or other software tool is, is evaluated solely on how easy it is to start being productive when starting from point zero. The longer term view of how far it can take you, and how productive it can make a skilled user is too often overlooked.

--- rod.

2 members found this post helpful.

+1 to that....