Wednesday, October 10, 2012

HPL

In an earlier post, I compared some of the magic in the Harry Potter stories with technology that's available today. It occurred to me that the best use of this overlap would be to implement a computer programming language whose built-in operators are spells from the Harry Potter books. We will call this, naturally, HPL (Harry Potter Language). As I first step, I'm proposing the following:

CommandEffect
AccioDownload file
AlohomoraEnable access
Avada KadavraCtrl-Alt-Del
ConfundusDisplay engineer-written help message
EngorgioFill available memory.
Expecto PatronumLaunch a new process
ExpelliarmusEject CD
Imperiosudo
LegilimensShow stack trace
LumosBrighten screen
ObliviateDelete
Patrificus TotalisFreeze computer1
Prior IncantatoUndo
RiddikulusCan be substituted for any program written in HPL
Wingardium LeviosaUpload file

1Redundant on Windows systems.

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