# Esoteric Programming Language

So called esoteric programming languages (esolangs) are highly experimental and [fun](fun.md) [programming languages](programming_language.md) that employ bizarre ideas. Popular languages of this kind include [brainfuck](brainfuck.md), [chef](chef.md) or [omgrofl](omgrofl.md).

There is a wiki for esolangs, the [Esolang Wiki](https://esolangs.org). If you want to behold esolangs in all their beauty, see [hello world in different languages](https://esolangs.org/wiki/Hello_world_program_in_esoteric_languages_(nonalphabetic_and_A-M). The Wiki is published under [CC0](cc0.md)!

Some notable ideas employed by esolangs are:

- Using images instead of text as [source code](source_code.md) (e.g. *Piet*).
- Doing nothing (e.g. *Nothing*).
- Being 2 or more dimensional (e.g. *Befunge* or *Hexagony*).
- Source code resembling cooking recipes (e.g. *Chef*).
- Trying to be as hard to use as possible (e.g. *Brainfuck*).
- Trying to be as hard to compile as possible (e.g. *Befunge*).
- Adding randomness to program execution (e.g. *Entropy*).
- Obligation to beg the compiler to do its job (e.g. *INTERCAL*).
- Using only white characters in source code (e.g. *Whitespace*).
- Using only single letter in source code (e.g. *Unary*).
- Using git repository structure as source code (e.g. *legit*).
- Source code resembling dramatic plays (e.g. *Shakespeare*, actual [real-life](real_life.md) plays were performed).
- Solely focus on [golfing](golf.md), i.e. writing the shortest possible programs (e.g. *GoldScript*)
- Using [unicode](unicode.md) characters (e.g. *UniCode*).
- Being infinitely many languages (e.g. *MetaGolfScript*, each one solves a specific program in 0 bytes).

Esolangs are great because:

- **They are actually useful research in language design**, even if most of the ideas aren't useful directly, esolangs really teach us about the borders and definitions of what languages are. And sometimes, by mistake, actual discoveries are made.
- They are **[fun](fun.md)**.
- **They are great exercise in [programming](programming.md)** and design. Simple languages that are allowed to not be useful are potentially good for education as they let the programmer fully focus on a specific idea and its implementation.
- **They blend technology with [art](art.md)**, train creativity.
- **They are a breath of fresh air** in the sometimes too serious area of technology. Hobbyist and non-commercial programming communities are always great to have.

## History

INTERCAL, made in 1972 by Donald Woods and James Lyon, is considered the first esolang in history: its goal was specifically intended to be different from traditional languages and so for example a level of politeness was introduced -- if there weren't enough PLEASE labels in the source code, the compiler wouldn't compile the program.

In 2005 esolang wiki was started.