Esoteric probe: LOLCODE

• Type: feature — esoteric-frontend-probe
• Status: done (2026-07-06) — skeleton landed, probe closed
• Umbrella: [[feature-esoteric-frontend-probes]]
• Opened: 2026-07-05

What it is

Lolspeak-themed esolang: HAI/KTHXBYE (program bounds), I HAS A (declare), VISIBLE (print), GIMMEH (read), O RLY?/YA RLY (if), IM IN YR/IM OUTTA YR (loop), SMOOSH (string concat). Dynamically typed with loose implicit casting between string/int/float/bool.

Why it's a good probe

Dynamically typed + loosely cast — different type-checking path than anything static-typed PXX parses today. Closest existing comparison is Nil Python's dynamic surface; this hits it from a different, sillier angle. Likely the cheapest candidate in the umbrella — no generics, no ownership, no exotic control flow beyond what BASIC already has.

Scope (skeleton only — see umbrella for the category rule)

Lexer + parser for the subset above, lowering onto existing IR (probably via the same boxed/tagged-value approach Nil Python's dynamic typing already uses). Stop once a trivial HAI ... VISIBLE "HAI WORLD" ... KTHXBYE program compiles and runs, or a shared-internals bug surfaces trying to get there.

Acceptance

Either: (a) a shared IR/codegen/ABI bug is found and filed as its own Track A ticket, or (b) the trivial subset compiles and runs clean — both are a successful, closed probe. Do not extend past the trivial subset either way.

Log

• 2026-07-05 — filed as part of the esoteric-frontend-probes umbrella.

Probe done (2026-07-06, Track Z session)

Skeleton landed, additive-only per the Ada/Zig pattern: compiler/llexer.inc

• compiler/lparser.inc (new), isLol + .lol dispatch in compiler.pas, one-line var in defs.inc. lparser reuses rparser.inc's node helpers.

Landed subset: HAI/KTHXBYE, I HAS A x [ITZ expr] (type inferred: NUMBR->Int64/YARN->string/TROOF->bool), x R expr, VISIBLE with multiple operands, prefix ops SUM/DIFF/PRODUKT/QUOSHUNT/MOD OF, BOTH SAEM/DIFFRINT, <expr>, O RLY? YA RLY/NO WAI/OIC (the expression IS the condition — the IT variable is explicitly out of scope, a bare expression statement errors loudly instead of silently vanishing), IM IN YR/IM OUTTA YR + GTFO, SMOOSH ... MKAY string concat (tkPlus chain), WIN/FAIL, BTW/OBTW..TLDR comments, newline/comma statement separators. Test: test/test_lolcode_skeleton.lol in make test.

Probe verdict: no shared-internals bug. Dynamic-typing angle reduced to declare-time inference (honest skeleton cut). One frontend-local bug during bring-up, and it was the documented paramless-recursion pitfall AGAIN (a := LParseExpr; inside LParseExpr's own body reads Result instead of recursing — third frontend in a row to hit a variant of this; the pitfall memory earns its keep).

Acceptance (b) met: trivial-plus subset compiles and runs clean. Closed at skeleton depth per the umbrella cap.