The author's Implementing a Forth article drew strong feedback about tiny Forth implementations, prompting a look at why tiny programs and small code hold such appeal. Tiny programs are approachable: 200 lines invites reading far more than 20,000, and something interesting done in 20 lines when 2,000 were expected becomes irresistible.
While researching DOM diffing libraries for Retro V, the author found ijk by Luke Jackson—just 25 lines—a welcome contrast to fat JavaScript libraries. Philippe Brochard then shared a 46 byte Forth in response to the Forth article. At 46 bytes, the hexdump looks manageable rather than frightening; with effort, anyone could eventually figure out how it works.
The piece also recalls Roger K.W. Hui's story of Arthur Whitney writing an array-based language interpreter in 122 lines of cryptic C on a single page in one afternoon. J sits in the array language family alongside APL.
A July 2026 update adds Alex's link to k OS, featuring Whitney's k array language and kdb database in a 90 Kb bootable image, with a GUI in 60 lines of C and kdb possibly just 100 lines. William Byrd's Most Beautiful Program Ever Written—a Lisp interpreter in Lisp—and code golfing round out the collection.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing