Exploring the World’s Most Baffling Esoteric Programming Languages

When we discuss mainstream languages like C, C++, Java, or Python, some languages are intentionally obscure and nearly incomprehensible to most developers; these are known as esoteric programming languages (esolangs).

Malbolge

Created by Ben Olmstead in 1998, Malbolge is widely regarded as the most complex esolang. Its author never wrote code in it, and the first Hello World program appeared two years after its invention.

(=<`#9]~6ZY32Vx/4Rs+0No-&Jk)"Fh}|Bcy?`=*z]Kw%oG4UUS0/@-ejc(:'8dc

The program prints “Hello World!” as shown below.

INTERCAL

INTERCAL, standing for “Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym,” was invented by Jim Lyon and Don Woods in 1972 as a satire of contemporary language design. It features absurd requirements such as the mandatory use of the keyword “PLEASE.”

For example, if the code does not frequently use “PLEASE,” the compiler reports an error, and excessive use also triggers an error for being “over‑polite.”

Below is an INTERCAL Hello World program.

DO ,1 <- #13
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #1 <- #238
DO ,1 SUB #2 <- #108
DO ,1 SUB #3 <- #112
DO ,1 SUB #4 <- #0
DO ,1 SUB #5 <- #64
DO ,1 SUB #6 <- #194
DO ,1 SUB #7 <- #48
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #8 <- #22
DO ,1 SUB #9 <- #248
DO ,1 SUB #10 <- #168
DO ,1 SUB #11 <- #24
DO ,1 SUB #12 <- #16
DO ,1 SUB #13 <- #162
PLEASE READ OUT ,1
PLEASE GIVE UP

The resulting output is displayed below.

Brainfuck

Brainfuck was created by Urban Müller in 1993 as a minimalist language consisting of only eight commands, yet it is Turing‑complete. The original compiler was only 296 bytes.

Here is a classic Brainfuck Hello World program.

++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+.

The program’s output is shown in the following image.

COW

COW was invented by Sean Heber in 2003. Its syntax resembles Brainfuck but adds four extra commands, giving a total of twelve commands.

The following COW program prints “Hello, World!”.

MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MOO moO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO moO MoO MoO MoO MoO moO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO moO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO
 MoO MoO moO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO mOo mOo mOo mOo mOo MOo moo moO moO moO moO Moo moO MOO mOo MoO moO MOo moo mOo MOo MOo MOo Moo MoO MoO 
 MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo Moo MoO MoO MoO Moo MMM mOo mOo mOo MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo moO Moo MOO moO moO MOo mOo mOo MOo moo moO moO MoO 
 MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO MoO Moo MMM MMM Moo MoO MoO MoO Moo MMM MOo MOo MOo Moo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo MOo Moo mOo MoO Moo

The output image is shown below.

Whitespace

Whitespace, created by Chris Morris and Edwin Brady at Durham University and released on April 1 2003, treats only spaces, tabs, and linefeeds as syntax; all other characters are ignored as comments.

The following program prints “Hello World!” using only whitespace characters, with comments indicating each space (S), tab (T), or linefeed (L).

S S S T S S T S S S L
T L
S S S S S T T S S T S T L
T L
S S S S S T T S T T S S L
T L
S S S S S T T S T T S S L
T L
S S S S S T T S T T T T L
T L
S S S S S T S T T S S L
T L
S S S S S T S S S S S L
T L
S S S S S T T T S T T T L
T L
S S S S S T T S T T T T L
T L
S S S S S T T T S S T S L
T L
S S S S S T T S T T S S L
T L
S S S S S T T S S T S S L
T L
S S S S S T S S S S T L
T L
S S L
L
L

The resulting output is displayed below.

The article is a translation of a piece originally published on LevelUp (https://levelup.gitconnected.com/5-most-difficult-programming-languages-in-the-world-549c3cf91b23).