10 Most Curious Programming Languages

#10 Whitespace
Developers: Edwin Brady and Chris Morris

Whitespace was released on April 1^st 2003. Most people took it as an April fool joke, which it wasn’t. Instead of the usual programming languages that ignored whitespace characters, this program accepted only the whitespaces. Thus tabs, spaces and newlines have meaning and are considered syntax in this language.
The language can be very much useful for spies. Imagine you have a top secret program that you don't want anyone to see. What do you do? Simply print it out and delete the file, ready to type in at a later date. Nobody will know that your blank piece of paper is actually vital computer code!

#9 Chef

Designer: David Morgan-Mar

Chef is an interesting programming language which got released in 2002. The program looks like cooking recipes with variables named after the ingredients. The stacks are called “mixing bowls” or “baking dishes” and the instructions like “mix” and “stir” are required to carry out the functions. The main principle of language design is: program recipes should not only generate valid output, but be easy to prepare and delicious. For instance, the instructions look like:

Take *ingredient* from refrigerator. — read an integer from standard input and store it into the given variable.

Put *ingredient* into [nth] mixing bowl. — push the value of the variable on the top of the bowl.

#8 Shakespere

This programming language was designed by Jon Aslund and Karl Hasselstrom as a part of their lab project. Like the Chef programming language, Shakespeare Programming Language(SPL) is designed to make programs appear to be something other than programs; in this case, Shakespearean plays. The language has title, characters, acts and scenes, enter and exit. Characters are named like "Romeo" and "Juliet", which enter into dialogue with each other for performing functions. The programs are easily understood as it is written in the form of a drama.

#7 Velato

Designer: Daniel Temkin

Velato, an esoteric programming language uses MIDI files as the source code. According to Wiki, “Programs in Velato, are defined by the pitch and order of notes. Velato is intended to allow for flexibility in composition, so functional programs will not necessarily sound like random notes. There is a tendency for Velato programs to have jazz-like harmonies.”

#6 Go

Developer: Google

You may not believe this. But the Go Programming language was developed by the search giant Google, which was released in 2009.

According to the website, “Go is an open source programming environment that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.”

When the language turned 3 recently, it stated that the first stable version Go 1 programs are confident and their programs will continue to compile and run without change, in many environments.

#5 Piet

Developer: David Morgan-Mar

The code of this esoteric programming language resembles an abstract painting. ‘Piet’ was named after Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter.

The language uses 20 separate colours, where each colour corresponds to a particular behavior. They are arranged in blocks. The compilation is guided by a "pointer" that moves around the image, from one continuous coloured region to the next. Procedures are carried through when the pointer exits a region.

#4 Brainf**k

Developer: Urban Muller

The esoteric language came out in 1993 was designed to challenge and amuse programmers. It stood out from other programming languages due to its extreme minimalism. He made it with intention of designing a language which could be implemented with the smallest possible compiler. However, the language is not suitable for practical use. The developer was also able to write a 200 byte compiler for the language. 

#3 Befunge

Developer: Chris Pressey

While Brainf**k was designed for minimalism, Befunge was created in 1993 for complexity. The developer created this esoteric language with the goal of being as difficult to compile as possible. It is a two dimensional ASCII based programming language.

#2 Omgrofl

Developer: Juraj Borza

The esoteric language created in 2006 has variables and keywords resembling Internet slang. The name comes from combining the slang "words" omg and rofl. All the variables in this language should be slang like ‘lol,’ ‘lool’ and so on. Rofl is actually one of Omgrofl's commands.

#1 Ook!

Developer: David Morgan-Mar

This language is similar to Brainf**k, except that the instructions are changed into Orangutan words. Both are developed by the same guy. It is a joke esoteric language which belongs to “strange programming language” category and has only three syntax elements– Ook./Ook?/Ook!

For instance: Ook. Ook? Refers to move the pointer to the right.