Babel Machine

If you happen to be a hardcore programmer and think that you’ve indeed mastered all the programming languages then just hold on! I guess you should have a good look at the Top 10 most Weirdest Programming Languages, which you probably might not have even come across. Each one of them is unique, and has some mind boggling stuff associated with it.

These languages are often referred to as esoteric programming languages, which have been designed with the intent of complicating things and amusing the users rather than simplifying it.

1.    Brainfuck

It was the invention of Urban Müller, designed to realize its implementation in the smallest possible compiler, and his master-plan came into existence in 1993.

Known for its extreme minimalism, and controversial name, Bf comprises of only 8 commands +-. <>, [] and is practically useless, however recently few decoders have been designed to render it useful enough.

Examples- Hello World!

++++++++++                    initialises cell zero to 10
[
>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-
]                                 this loop sets the next four cells to 70/100/30/10
>++.                             print   ‘H’
>+.                               print   ‘e’
+++++++.                              ‘l’
.                                    ‘l’
+++.                                  ‘o’
>++.                                  space
<<+++++++++++++++.                ‘W’
>.                                    ‘o’
+++.                                  ‘r’
——.                              ‘l’
——–.                             ‘d’
>+.                                   ‘!’
>.                                    newline

NOTE: Comments have been just provided to make the code readable, however the real code is merely-

++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<]>++.>+.+++++++..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.——.——–.>+.>.

So if you think you’re damn good at programming, try printing Hello World in brainfuck within 2minutes just like you do in C, C++, Java, PHP, HTML and other programming languages!

2.    FALSE

It is one of the weirdest programming languages designed, which served as an inspiration for development of other similar esoteric programming languages like Befunge, brainfuck and the likes of them. This language is highly confusing, basically because of its low level Forth programming language like structure, making it hard-to-understand.

For example, to calculate 3 + 1 by evaluating (λ x → x + 1)(3): 3[1+]!

You bet you can never follow it at first shot.

3.    Funge

It is extremely weird because basically the language models programs to be metric spaces attached with a co-ordinate system. One could never imagine that the instruction pointer could be even used in such an unorganized manner. What’s more it has even further developed into Befunge, and there have been several standards defined such as uni-funge for uni-dimensional and so on.

Check this out, and you’re bound to grow some fungus inside your head for sure!

4.    LOLCODE

It is a very funny programming language, basically designed to amuse the users with resemblance of the speech of lolcats. Wondering what is the language all about, and then has a closer look at the “hello world” program:
HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE “HAI WORLD!”
KTHXBYE

Lol yeah, no kidding it prints Hello World!

5.    Chef

This language is more of a cooking recipe rather than a programming language. Just have a look at this statement - Put cinnamon into 2nd mixing bowl!

Clueless what is it all about? Well it is just a statement, which instructs the compiler to push an item onto the stack.

6.    Velato

This one is for the music lovers, as Velato makes use of MIDI files as the input, with each command being determined by the interval between successive notes.

7.    Shakespeare

As it sounds, the language has been deliberately tweaked to frame programs resemble the plays of Shakespeare

How about this statement- Act I: Hamlet’s insults and flattery… It actually serves as declaration of a point in program, reachable via a GOTO-type statement.

8.    Whitespace

One of the most idiotic ones, which comprises of just the letter A, accompanied by commas, spaces and exclamations! It takes just the whitespaces into account, ignoring the non-whitespaces

9.    TRUE

It happens to be another weird one, which is basically a kind of mutation of FALSE. However, FALSE is rather structured, and TRUE just like its counter part (as its name suggests clearly) lacks variables, and features hardly few string manipulations etc.

10.    Intercal

Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym, INTERCAL was the end result of exceptional work by James M. Lyon & Donald R. Woods, who came up with a programming language in 1972, which was totally different from all other programming languages. You can’t make head or tail out of it, except the binary numbers, which wouldn’t even make much of sense to you!