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Awesome Esolangs

Curated list of awesome esoteric programming languages, resources and related projects.

“An esoteric programming language, or esolang, is a computer programming language designed to experiment with weird ideas, to be hard to program in, or as a joke, rather than for practical use.”
esolang.org

Contents

• Languages
• Algorithms
• Others
• Resources
• Articles
• Community

Languages

• ><> - A stack-based 2d language with support for reflection.
• 1+ - A surprisingly user-friendly language with a highly-limited instruction set.
• 78 - A single-character command language focused around the numbers 7 and 8.
• ajsone - Language defined completely in JSON.
• AlmostBinary - Code in binary and run on any platform.
• ArnoldC - Based on the best one-liners of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Befunge - Two-dimensional language.
• Brackets - Language made of brackets, a lot of brackets.
• Brainfuck - Minimalist language using only 8 single-character commands.
• C Flat - Musical language focused on sound rather than notation with creative freedom in mind.
• CellTail - A 1d celular automata based language, supports a complex pattern matching syntax.
• Charcoal - Concise language for sketching ASCII art.
• Chef - Programs that look like cooking recipes.
• Chicken - Only 1 valid symbol: ‘chicken’.
• ChuckScript - Unary-based language, where the code is a single number.
• COW - Brainfuck variant using twelve variations of moos as instructions.
• DNA# - Language based on the structure of the DNA.
• Dots - A turing-complete language using “.” symbol only.
• Electra - Code like an electrician.
• Emojicode - Full-blown programming language consisting of emojis.
• Enterprise™ - Non deterministic unnecessarily statically typed language.
• False - Heavily obfuscated language with a minimal implementation.
• Fetlang - Designed such that source code looks like poorly written fetish erotica.
• FlipJump - 1 instruction: Flip a bit, then Jump. The simplest OISC.
• Folders - Code written with folders.
• FreakC - Full-blown programming language with NSFW contents and memes.
• Fugue - Music as source code.
• Golfscript - Stack oriented, aimed at solving problems in as few keystrokes as possible.
• Haifu - Designed with the core values of Eastern philosophy in mind.
• INTERCAL - Parody language intended to be completely different from other languages.
• Japt - Reduced JavaScript for golfing.
• Jelly - Golfing language based on J.
• JellyScript - Brainfuck-based with delicious jelly.
• JSFuck - Esoteric programming style based on the atomic parts of JavaScript.
• Lazy K - Minimal, turing-complete pure functional language without extra features.
• legit - Programs defined entirely by the graph of the git repository instead of its contents.
• LolCode - Language with keywords based on the lolcat meme expressions.
• Malbolge - Named after the 8th level of hell, is designed to be as difficult as possible to program.
• Monicelli - Programming using Italian-like gibberish.
• Ni - Brainfuck-based with more helpful instructions.
• Omgrofl - Syntax resembling Internet slang.
• Ook! - Brainfuck-based language, where the commands are orangutan words.
• Orca - Livecoding environment to quickly create procedural audio sequencers.
• Piet - Language in which programs look like abstract paintings using colors as code. Named after Piet Mondrian.
• RASEL - Fungeoid with no limits on program space, float precision, and with a bit of random access to stack.
• reMorse - Morse-styled language.
• Rockstar - Designed for creating computer programs that are also song lyrics.
• Shakespeare - Language where the code appear to be Shakespearean plays.
• Spooky - The scariest programming language :jack_o_lantern: :skull:.
• Suzy - 3D language inspired in Befunge.
• Technologic - Language in which programs look like the lyrics to the Daft Punk song Technologic.
• Thue - Matrioshka language based on nondeterministic string rewriting of a semi-Thue grammar.
• Tru - A stack-based language with prefix-free brackets.
• TrumpScript - Make Python great again.
• Turtle - Uses long-term storage for memory use.
• Unary - Brainfuck-based language where all the commands are 0.
• Unlambda - Obfuscated functional programming.
• Velato - Language that uses MIDI files as source, programs are defined by the pitch and order of notes.
• Vigil - Only Vigil is truly vigilant about not allowing code that fails to pass programmatic specifications.
• Watson - Stack-based Turing-incomplete configuration files.
• 文言 (Wenyan) - Closely follows the grammar and tone of classical Chinese literature.
• Whenever - Language that does things whenever it wants.
• Whitespace - Use only white-characters (space, tabs and newlines).
• WordLang - A language based on meaning-like grammar that produces output.
• Z - Use only the letter z.
• ZOMBIE - Inherently evil multithreaded language designed for Necromancers.

Algorithms

• πfs - Pi-based storage system, store your data by searching a matching sequence in pi.
• Stacksort - Sorts a list by searching answers in Stack Overflow and executing code snippets until is sorted.

Others

• asmbf - The only true brainfuck assembler toolkit.
• CSS-only-chat - A truly monstrous async web chat using no JS whatsoever on the frontend.
• FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition - Simple FizzBuzz game implemented under the most strict enterprise standards.
• MalbolgeLisp - A Lisp interpreter in Malbolge Unshackled.
• NoCode - Secure and reliable applications. Write nothing; deploy nowhere.
• Petrovich - Operating System concept based on random actions and rewards/punishments.
• vapor.js - The World’s Smallest & Fastest JavaScript Library.

Resources

• DM’s Esoteric Programming Languages - List of esoteric languages and algorithms written by dangermouse.
• Esofiles - The Esoteric Files Archive, an archive of implementations of esoteric programming languages and examples.
• Esolang - Wiki of esoteric programming languages and related Resources.
• Esoteric Codes - Articles and documents collection.
• Rosettacode - Provides examples in different languages, including esoteric languages.
• Wikipedia/Esoteric programming languages - Wikipedia list of esoteric languages.
• Esolang List of ideas - Compilation of ideas for esoteric languages and related.

Articles

• Let’s Build a Basic Interpreter (Ruslan’s Blog) - Series of articles explaining the basics of compilers and interpreters and how to build one.
• Six programming paradigms that will change how you think about coding - Post by Yevgeniy Brikman describing different programming paradigms that are not commonly applied.
• The Fun (and Madness) of Esoteric Programming Languages - Straightforward introduction to esoteric languages with examples.
• On the Turing Completeness Of MS PowerPoint - Turing Machine on PowerPoint.

Community

• Anarchy Golf - Informal golfing problems server.
• Code Golf Stack Exchange - Golfing problems and answers.
• Freenode IRC Channel - The #esoteric IRC channel on freenode.
• Reddit Esolangs - Reddit community on esolangs.
• Esolangs Discord Server - A Discord community about esoteric languages.

Logo used with permission of David Morgan-Mar