Set in stone a number of simple, but culturally important, programs in as many programming languages as we can find, while there are still serious practicioners around to consult.
So, for example: ¨Hello World¨, number-base converters and null drivers in 6502, 6809, 68000, 32010,... Ada, ARM, Algol, AMPLE, BASIC, c, c++, COBOL, FORTH, FORTRAN, occam, LISP, LOGO, Pascal, Prolog, Z80 etc

Perhaps they should be placed alongside the Georgia Guidestones
-- Dub, Dec 11 2011

Wiki: Georgia Guidestones http://en.wikipedia...Georgia_Guidestones
[Dub, Dec 11 2011]

Oooh, look rosettacode.org http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Hello_world
(Ripped from Wiki) Rosetta Code was created in 2007 by Michael Mol. The Rosetta Code web repository illustrates how desired functionality is implemented very differently in various programming paradigms,[4][5] and how "the same" task is accomplished in different programming languages [Dub, Mar 21 2021]

ANTLR: ANother Tool for Language Recognition https://www.antlr.org/
I've not used ANTLR specifically, but have worked on/am working on something similar - albeit focusing on converting from one language to (initially) one (but now two) other languages. The parser --> AST --> Code flow seems to be the way to go, with an AST as the rosetta "nubbin" that can be used to generate content in many different output languages. [zen_tom, Mar 22 2021]

It's important to hang on to the past; I always operate under the 'watch where that lands' principle of innovation.

[+]
-- Alterother, Dec 11 2011


I thought this was going to be a program that helped me learn programming languaes. Which would have been helpful when I was trying to learn FORTRAN. In fact cannot bun this knowing that FORTRAN would be immortalized in stone.
-- DIYMatt, Dec 11 2011


//while there are still serious practicioners around to consult//

Conveniently, even the most arcane of languages still have a number of hobbyist practicioners. Check out projecteuler.net; and even that barely scratches the surface of "why would someone bother maintaining skills in that...?".
-- swimswim, Dec 11 2011


This is brilliant, but you should also include archival-quality instructions for building the drives and other devices needed to access all digital storage media ever used.
-- LoriZ, Oct 19 2015


[+] but only if it includes some of Ada Lovelace's code for the Babbage engine.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 19 2015


Yup, and not just Hello World, but John Conway's Game of Life. a Turin machine, ...

Obfuscated versions could be engraved into the Alps/Rockies/Himalayas.
-- Dub, Oct 20 2015


//a Turin machine//

That would be something that moves progressively along a wide cloth tape, gradually imprinting the image of a beardy bloke?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 20 2015


I discovered formal language theory really late in life, but assuming a language can be expressed as a CFG (context-free grammar), then it can be decomposed into a series of production rules that can be used both to parse, but crucially also, to generate statements in a given language. If you can map your production rules into an Abstract Syntax Tree, and back again, then you should have the basis for a transpiler from one language into another. Much easier to theorise about than actually do - but the groundwork is there. There are some limited transpilers out there, mostly I understand that map to and from JavaScript.
-- zen_tom, Mar 22 2021



random, halfbakery