nneet

Nneet is a fictional programming language introduced in speculative computing literature as a minimal, domain-specific language for expressing asynchronous dataflow computations. The name is usually written in lowercase to reflect its minimalist philosophy and is sometimes described as an acronym for "nested neural evaluation and event threading," though this etymology varies in community lore.

Design and features: Nneet emphasizes explicit dataflow graphs, composable functions, and lightweight concurrency. Programs are formed by connecting nodes with edges that carry streams of values. The language supports first-class functions, pattern matching for control flow, and optional static typing. Memory management is described as deterministic by construction, with running state exposed only through explicit nodes.

History and usage: In the fictional universe, nneet originated in an open-source educational project described on community wikis around the 2010s. It is used as a teaching tool to illustrate language design trade-offs between expressiveness and simplicity. Authors depict it as suitable for prototyping data pipelines and algorithmic ideas without the complexity of full-featured languages.

Example: A simple operation to apply a function f to every element of a list xs is described as map f xs, producing a new list. A small program might compose map with filter to process streams of data in a single pass.

Impact and criticism: Within its lore, nneet is valued for its clarity and approachable syntax but criticized for a sparse standard library and limited tooling. It remains a fixture in speculative discussions and wiki-based projects about language design.

See also: Toy programming languages, List of programming languages.