Esoteric languages that explore how little a programming language needs, or how strange its form can be, while still being able to compute. Brainfuck has only eight commands, Unlambda rests on two built-in functions and an apply operator, Whitespace gives meaning only to spaces, tabs and newlines, and Befunge lays programs out on a two-dimensional grid. Brainfuck was created in 1993 by the Swiss student Urban Müller and is known as a Turing tarpit, since it can express any program but gives so little abstraction that programs become very long.
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Minimalist and Unconventional Esoteric Languages
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Programming Language Database (PLDB): Malbolge - PLDB
Programming Language Database (PLDB)Has Member: Malbolge, Page textQuote, Has Member: Malbolge, Page text
esoteric programming language invented by Ben Olmstead
Programming Language Database (PLDB): FRACTRAN
Programming Language Database (PLDB)Has Member: FRACTRAN, Page textQuote, Has Member: FRACTRAN, Page text
Turing-complete esoteric programming language invented by the mathematician John Conway
Brainfuck, Wikipedia
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Brainfuck is an esoteric programming language created in 1993 by Swiss student Urban Müller. Designed to be extremely minimalistic, the language consists of only eight simple commands, a data pointer, and an instruction pointer.
Whitespace (programming language)
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Whitespace is an esoteric programming language with syntax where only whitespace characters (space, tab and newline) have meaning, contrasting typical languages that largely ignore whitespace characters.
Befunge, Wikipedia
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Befunge is a two-dimensional stack-based, reflective, esoteric programming language.
Unlambda, Wikipedia
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Unlambda is a minimal, "nearly pure" functional programming language invented by David Madore.
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