[dmix]

The language designer must be a fan of writing assembly language, combined with some LISPy syntax, or something... that's the closest analogy I can think of from looking at it. Maybe it requires some IDE type of editor to make it comprehensible.

From the authors:

    Its syntax is entirely novel and initially quite frightening.

    [...]

    If I can summarize Hoon's goal, it's to be the C of functional 
    programming. 

    [...]     

    On the other hand, the apparent complexity of Hoon is very high. 
    When you open a Hoon file, you are confronted with an enormous
    avalanche of barely structured line noise. Again this reminds us
    of C, which makes no attempt at the kind of abstract prettiness
    we expect from a Pascal or a Haskell. Learning Hoon involves
    learning nearly 100 ASCII digraph "runes."

    Is this a harsh learning curve? Of course it is. On the other hand,
    it is not a mathematical task, but a mechanical one. It is trivial
    compared to the task of learning the Chinese alphabet, memorizing
    the Qu'ran, etc, all rote mental tasks routinely performed by normal
    human 11-year-olds.

From the languages even more confusing documentation: https://github.com/cgyarvin/urbit/blob/master/doc/book/0-int...

[state]

I think you're probably better off reading the current docs: http://urbit.org/docs/

[smellf]

For entertainment value, might I suggest the Hoon syntax page?

http://urbit.org/docs/hoon/syntax/