Wikipedia is more generous in its description:

An esoteric programming language (sometimes shortened to esolang) is a programming language designed to test the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, as software art, as a hacking interface to another language (particularly functional programming or procedural programming languages), or as a joke. The use of esoteric distinguishes these languages from programming languages that working developers use to write software. Usually, an esolang's creators do not intend the language to be used for mainstream programming, although some esoteric features, such as visuospatial syntax,[1] have inspired practical applications in the arts. Such languages are often popular among hackers and hobbyists.

Esolangs wiki: With lovely languages like:

... and many, many others. The Esolangs wiki has broken them out into a number of different categories, which is interesting even for non-esoteric languages.

Esoteric Programming Languages Webring (which seems broken)

Some random links I've found:

Some ideas I have for esoteric languages:


Tags: language   esoteric  

Last modified 16 December 2024