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Obscure Programming Language

Posted by: Jeff Brown on 08/20/2006
I was doing some research on quines this weekend and while doing so I stumbled across several obscure programming languages that I was not previously familiar with. The following is actual code I wrote that will compile and run (it isn't a quine)...


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


Do you know what language that is? A few hints...


  • The language is composed of just 8 commands, each expressed with a single character (7 are used in the program above)

  • Whitespace is insignificant

  • The language is "Turing-Complete"

  • The language has a colorful name (if you reply to this, you may use the initials to avoid the offensive word)


About Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown

Core member of the Grails development team, Jeff Brown, is a Senior Software Engineer with SpringSource. Jeff has been involved in designing and building object oriented systems for over 15 years. Jeff's areas of expertise include web development with Groovy & Grails, Java and agile development.

More About Jeff »

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