Icon and Pike are two programming languages that I probably didn't need to learn. Griswold's book on the Icon implementation was OK; it describes a complete compiler, intermediate instruction set and a VM in a compact book, but so did "A Little Smalltalk", in a far smaller frame and with class.
Icon is a "modern" SNOBOL, if you want that sort of a thing. Most Icon books and publications are online as well:
Some of the biggest reasons to learn a new language are the features that you can take back to more domestic ones; almost nothing that makes Icon special (backtracking, generators, string scanning) can be used in other languages
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 12.8 ms ] threadIcon is a "modern" SNOBOL, if you want that sort of a thing. Most Icon books and publications are online as well:
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/icon/books.htm