The Rockstar Programming Language

December 8, 2021 by Steven Ng

So I guess I must have missed it in when it was first announced 2018, but on Hacker News yesterday, the Rockstar programming language hit the front page.

Rockstar is a language that is unlike any programming language I've seen. Every program you write is... a song. For example, the fizz buzz program goes like this:

Midnight takes your heart and your soul
While your heart is as high as your soul
Put your heart without your soul into your heart

Give back your heart

Desire is a lovestruck ladykiller
My world is nothing 
Fire is ice
Hate is water
Until my world is Desire,
Build my world up
If Midnight taking my world, Fire is nothing and Midnight taking my world, Hate is nothing
Shout "FizzBuzz!"
Take it to the top

If Midnight taking my world, Fire is nothing
Shout "Fizz!"
Take it to the top

If Midnight taking my world, Hate is nothing
Say "Buzz!"
Take it to the top

Whisper my world

I won't spoil anything by explaining the language's syntax, but there's an interesting presentation on Rockstar by the language's creator, Dylan Beattie. I've set the link to jump to the meaty part of his long presentation.

It appears that the language was created as a goof on the term "rock star programmer", but since the language's announcement, there have actually been compiler implementations created. For all intents and purposes, it's a real programming language.

If we're lucky, we'll see another language in the future called "Ninja" too.