Top programming languages that hard to learn

A computer is a computational device which is used to process the data under the control of a computer program. The program is a sequence of instruction along with data. While executing the program, raw data is processed into a desired output format. These computer programs are written in programming languages which are high-level languages. High-level languages are nearly human languages which are more complex than the computer understandable languages which are called machine language, or low-level language. A programming language is special language programmers use to develop software programs, scripts, or other sets of instructions for computers to execute.

There are some difficult languages which can make life hell for wannabe coders. Yes, there are programming languages which could drive you nuts. While starting out on the learning curve, most of the languages might have posed enough challenges and caused you to pull the hair off your head. But eventually, you put in enough time and effort and things started to happen magically.

Those programming languages really take the difficulty to the God level. These languages are also known as esoteric programming languages. In this article, we will share some most difficult programming languages that will give you nightmares if you try learning them.

So, let's get started -

Brain Fuck

This language is difficult as the name suggests. Brainfuck was invented by Urban Müller in 1993, in an attempt to make a language for which he could write the smallest possible compiler for the Amiga OS, version 2.0. Brainfuck operates on an array of memory cells, also referred to as the tape, each initially set to zero. There are only 8 commands in the language > < + - . , [ ]

COW

It was created by Sean Heber in 2003. The language consists of 12 instructions, most of them are moo or its variations. The COW programming language was designed with the bovine in mind. Given that cows have somewhat limited vocabulary skills, it seemed natural to incorporate only the words they know into the language. As a result, all instructions are some variation on “moo” which just so happens to be the only word they really understand. Any other word or symbol that isn’t an instruction is ignored entirely.

Whitespace

It was released on 1 April 2003, most people thought it was an April Fool’s joke, but it wasn’t. As you can guess, in the Whitespace language, only spaces, tabs and linefeeds have meaning. The Whitespace interpreter ignores any non-whitespace characters. An interesting consequence of this property is that a Whitespace program can easily be contained within the whitespace characters of a program written in another language.

Malbolge

It was created by Ben Olmstead in 1998, and considered to be one of the hardest programming languages. After the invention of this language, it took almost 2 years to write the first program using it. It’s designed specifically to be almost impossible to use or learn. Called after the eighth circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, which tells a lot about the general intent of its authors.

Objective C

If you are not familiar with it, the syntax of Objective C can be quite jarring. Swift cleaned up a lot of the perceived problems with Objective-C but many people will hate anything Apple makes. That being said, Objective-C programmers can be paid decent so whether people love it or hate it, these are two languages that are somewhat difficult to learn if you aren’t familiar with their concepts.

INTERCAL

It was created by Don Woods and James M. Lyon in 1972. The Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym abbreviated INTERCAL. Expressions that look like line noise. Control constructs that will make you gasp, make you laugh, and possibly make you hurl. INTERCAL has many other features designed to make it even more aesthetically un-pleasing to the programmer.

Piet

If you appreciate fine art, Piet is a language that you'll surely enjoy. Inspired by the abstract artist Piet Mondrian, Piet is a programming language that converts programs into abstract geometric paintings. Programs are made up of 20 different colors and then read by the compiler based on hex values to run a program.

Chef

If you are a cook, you might just love the programming language. The codes appear to be some cooking recipe and the principles listed on Chef’s documentation are the funniest. Some of the principles state that program recipes should not only be right to generate output but should be easy to prepare and look delicious. Not just that, the program recipe should be tailor-made for cooks with different budgets. The keywords are all the names of the ingredients of cooking. You got to see some of the sample codes in the programming language, and you might discover the eternal source of laughter.

Ook

If you've ever felt like a monkey just banging away at a keyboard, then Ook! will make you feel right at home. It's a language designed primarily for primates, specifically the orangutan. With Ook! you only use three syntax elements - 'Ook.', 'Ook?', 'Ook!'.

LOLCODE

LOLCODE is one of the favorites among esoteric languages. The language is based on the LOLCats phenomenon and uses LOLCats syntax to make programs run. Or something like that. LOLCODE has captured interest in parts of the programming community. The official site lists many different implementations in languages like PHP, Python, Perl, .NET and Java.

reMorse

reMorse is a language intended to look like morse code. Visions of submarines and telegrams come to mind with this simple yet incredibly challenging language. This language might be a tad on the difficult side. You know it's a bear to program when the author of the language won't finish all of the basic examples, due to complexity.

FALSE

With an appropriate negative connotation, FALSE is a language meant to discourage even the cleverest programmers. Based on the Forth language, FALSE uses a punctuation-based syntax (gross!) to help sour the programming experience. Yet FALSE isn't the most ridiculous of the esoteric languages, and could actually serve real-world purposes, as the operations are reasonably sensible and the language isn't extremely complex.

 

Which is the most difficult programming language according to you? Comment down below. Let us know if you know some other languages that you refer as difficult to learn. It will help the others to know more about the programming language. Thank you!

 

Photograph by Danielala