Write code that nobody is able to understand, but still does compute – that could be one of the ways to understand “Esoteric Programming Languages“. It is a term for languages that are not designed to be good at something or at least to be convenient. No, the reason for doing writing cryptical code like that is the very own sake of style of just being a little exquisite, extreme or to theoretically think about programming. Many are also meant as jokes. If you visit the wiki of esolangs.org you will find hundreds of total strange languages. Every madcap will find its own ways of enlightenment there. Probably the most famous of the esoteric programming languages is Brainfuck. I just compiled some languages that are extraordinary interesting or beauty in my eyes.
Black and Flip/BackFlip
Black is an interesting mixture of textual and visual language, inspired maybe by the game Black Box and definitely by the esoteric language flip (just click the link for a nice working example). You create something like a two-dimensional field, where ‘movements’ take part that generate output or compute. A little like the simulation of circuits inside the machines. One example in BackFlip.
\---------------------------- \ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/ > > > > > > > > V >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > V 0 >/< 1 ^/< 2 ^/< 3 ^/< 4 ^/< 5 ^/< 6 ^/< 7 ^/< 8 ^/< ^
And a complete program in Black:
1 # # # # N # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # % # # + ## # # # # # # + # # # ## # # + # # # # # # # * * * !
Chef
Write code that looks like a cooking instruction! The idea of chef is that writing a program is quite similar to writing a recipe. That's why chef makes use of this principle. You get what you want by actually writing a recipe. A Hello World program looks like that:
Hello World Souffle. Ingredients. 72 g haricot beans 101 eggs 108 g lard 111 cups oil 32 zucchinis 119 ml water 114 g red salmon 100 g dijon mustard 33 potatoes Method. Put potatoes into the mixing bowl. Put dijon mustard into the mixing bowl. Put lard into the mixing bowl. Put red salmon into the mixing bowl. Put oil into the mixing bowl. Put water into the mixing bowl. Put zucchinis into the mixing bowl. Put oil into the mixing bowl. Put lard into the mixing bowl. Put lard into the mixing bowl. Put eggs into the mixing bowl. Put haricot beans into the mixing bowl. Liquefy contents of the mixing bowl. Pour contents of the mixing bowl into the baking dish. Serves 1.
Crammed Syntax Languages
And then many languages exist that got very cryptic syntax. For example Zetaplex
"Hell"\ /d!"S\o "/rFer, l\DsO/" \"roW /
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n SPACE \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n
or Argh!
j world lppppppPPPPPPsrfj hello, * j qPh
You should definitely also check out ORK, MonkeyCode and LOLcode, that emerged out of the incredible LOLcats-movement.
