POP-2: A Tiny ALGOL-Like Language That Fits in 2.5KB

A few feral cats in an ALGOL trenchcoat.

POP-2: A Tiny ALGOL-Like Language That Fits in 2.5KB

POP-2 is a small, elegant language with ALGOL-like syntax but a deeply concatenative evaluation scheme. Its entire compiler is under 800 lines and fits in 2.5KB of memory, making it ideal for the Uxn virtual machine. This page introduces the language through examples: stack-based assignments, functions, conditionals, gotos, and I/O via Varvara's console port. It also shows how to build a string-printing function using pointers and arrays.

The language is so elegant and small that an entire compiler is less than 800 lines and fits within 2.5kb of memory.

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2026-08-30