Originally, Parrot was a Hoax Language, referred to in a 2001 April Fools day announcement that Python Language and Perl Language were going to be merged, under the new name "Parrot"
Also, it's been adopted as the name for the Perl Six Virtual Machine, which, ironically enough, is slated to support Python Language (among many others)
See Parrot Code.
Take a look at the Befunge Language. :-)
Look at this code sample:
# copy stdin to stdout, except for lines starting with # while left_angle_right_angle: if dollar_underscore[0] =eq= "#": continue_next; } print dollar_underscore; }
Explaining all the effort that went into this joke and is a fun to read
O'Reilly even announced a book about parrot and there was a nice interview with Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum
O'Reilly's book about Parrot
Interview with Larry and Guido
And in a nod to the Monty Python origins of the Parrot name, this was written (after the April Fools joke but before Parrot became the Virtual Machine project):
Is there more code? A formal spec? While the above code looks promising, it is not enough to deduce a complete language spec from.
You saw the note about 'April Fools day joke' above? No, there is no spec and probably there won't be more code or a spec in the future.
But I want to write an interpreter for it, in the gool ol' Inter Cal tradition. But of course I want to be sure to implement true blue Parrot, not some deviant offspring. -- Stephan Houben
So I guess this is really a Dead Parrot Language? Or is it just resting?
How could something be dead or resting if it never has been alive?
Schroedinger's Parrot?
The parrot is not dead, it's pining for the fjords.
See original on c2.com 