Let me introduce to you, a little known (probably even unheard of) language called Euphoria. It is a flexible and powerful language that is surprisingly easy to learn and claimed to be simpler than BASIC and more powerful than C. Well that’s something to live up to!

Euphoria is a relatively new language developed by Robert Craig in the early 90’s. It was probably envisaged as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft’s QBasic. It was initially an interpreted language for DOS. Today it is still an interpreted language, but is now 32-bit and supports all leading platforms – Win32, Linux and FreeBSD. It is does not claim to support OOP, but from what I read it is quite possible to implement OOP concepts in Euphoria.

The syntax structure of Euphoria is a seamless mix of the two different worlds of the BASIC and the C style of coding, along with some touches of PASCAL. This might seem a very difficult concoction but it they have managed to do it quite elegantly. I have to say, it is one of the neatest languages I have ever seen.

So why go of Euphoria? Firstly, it so small and simple making it ideal for that quick bit of programming you need to do. It is quite simple for a beginner to learn too. But that doesn’t mean Euphoria is not powerful. The first big use of Euphoria was in fact to create games. It does a good job there too.   Squid Blaster  is a game created in Euphoria. Have a look. That should give you some idea about its potential.

A simpler example. Here is how you would add 5 to all elements in an array.

x = {1,2,3,4,5} x = x + 5

After execution x would now contain the values {6,7,8,9,10}.

Euphoria is fast. Euphoria is interpreted. Again ideal for those one-off bits of programming, but at the same time powerful enough to support complex graphics. Well a good testimony to this is that the Euphoria distribution comes with the source code for the Euphoria interpreter written in Euphoria! :)

Point three. Price. Well nothing can beat Euphoria in that respect, since the SDK comes absolutely free!

All in all, Euphoria is something worth a try. It may not be a language you absolutely cannot live without. But do have a go. It costs nothing and you never know, one day you might be saved by Euphoria.

Links:

• Download Euphoria »     (rapideuphoria.com)
• Official Site »     (rapideuphoria.com)
• In-Depth review of Euphoria »     (from Monitor magazine)
• The Unknown Elegance of Euphoria »     (rapideuphoria.com)       **PS:** For those returning readers, if you are wondering what happened to the “Roads less travelled” tag I had advertised so lavishly.. I have decided to use that name for something more interesting. The lesser known technology articles will now be filed under “Stumbled Upon”. Sorry for the confusion.