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Not only does the target language read like line noise[0], so does the interpreter source code. I mean, seriously: https://github.com/kevinlawler/kona/blob/master/k.c

Can someone please confirm that this isn't an IOCCC entry?

[0] I kid. K's actually pretty readable, for a language in its class.

I can confirm this isn't an IOCCC entry. It looks like obscurantism, but it isn't. It's C code written as terse as possible, not as confusingly as possible. It takes a while to get used to. It's worth it.

There is significant overhead involved in learning to write C like this. There are also significant gains. It's similar to learning to use vim.

Last I counted the source was something like 250K bytes and still very manageable. If it had been written in a traditional style it would be many times that size and much harder to work with.