Esoteric Programming Languages

For a period in 2000-2001, back when I was learning how programming languages work, I wrote up a few simple languages in the vein of Befunge and Brainfuck ā€” essentially elaborate jokes that explored areas of the design space that other, wiser folks had avoided. I sent descriptions to the esolang mailing list, where similarly bewildered people hung out. I expected a giggle at best.

12 years later, Iā€™m still getting emails. I guess there are a lot of other weirdos on the Internet!

Around the same time, I wrote my first Forth implementation (for the 68000). Whether Forth qualifies as either an esoteric programming language, or an elaborate joke, is in the eye of the beholder.