On creating the universe

I've discovered an interesting truth about creating a programming language: you won't have enough motivation to do it right, unless you already have a program you want to write in that language. It doesn't matter how stupid the program is; if you don't have a problem to solve, the language won't go anywhere.


My first program will be a Sudoku solver, for a few reasons:

• They're simple and straightforward, but leave room for interesting optimizations and designs


• The rules can be expressed in a variety of ways which will force me to think about how domain knowledge is represented in the language


• I've been wanting to write one for the hell of it for a while anyways


• Someone just gave me a large book of Sudoku puzzles, and I can't be bothered to finish them by hand; just writing a program to finish them seems a bit like cheating, so I'll create a programming language to write a program to solve them. That's about fair I think.

(Yes, fans and enthusiasts, this means Epoch is officially back in action - please try to contain your excitement. I don't want to get any unbridled joy on my shirt.)