Which programming language has the fewest "commands"/keywords? (just for fun)

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I'm doing a set of programming lectures, these are less about the functional programming aspect, and more about the philosophy of programming and to inspire teens to look into programming.

So it would be fun to have a functional programming language that had very few "commands", so that I can show them something simple that does complex things.

Yes I could make my own "pseudocode language", with a simple "interpreter" in C#, (which is my plan), but it would be fun to have something real with 15-ish "keywords" that actually compile.

Anyone have any quick answers?

Posted 12-Feb-14 6:21am

Frank R. Haugen

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Matt T Heffron · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12T06:39:00

Solution 1

Well ... LISP has NO keywords!

It has a syntax and lots of predefined functions!

Posted 12-Feb-14 6:39am

Matt T Heffron

Updated 12-Feb-14 6:41am

v2

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Frank R. Haugen 12-Feb-14 13:36pm

I might have assumed "keyword" meant the same to others as it did to the guys I've been working with. From my mental "definition" of a "keyword" is any word that 'does' something; this include functions, operators, etc.

I probably should get around to make a "KAREL the Robot" in C#, that would fit my parameters :P

tnx anywasy :-)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 17:18pm

Great point. And this is not the only case. My 5.
It is hard to beat. The only possibility is to find or devise some programming language which has negative number of keywords. I would invite OP to work at such language. I'm pretty much sure it's quite possible. :-)
—SA

Matt T Heffron 12-Feb-14 18:33pm

Just how would you define "negative number of keywords" ??

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 19:17pm

I expected this question, but hoped that you would guess how...
However, if this cause some doubt, my explanation deserves a separate answer. Please see Solution 3. :-)
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 17:22pm

I actually got a different idea of the "language without keywords". Please see Solution 2.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12T13:16:00

Matt T Heffron asked:
Just how would you define "negative number of keywords" ??

I expected this question, but hoped that you would guess how. Of course.

The concept should be related to the idea of a "custom keyword". Are you getting the idea already?
I don't want to discuss what a "custom keyword" may mean, it could be probably introduced in different ways. It's important to understand that it should not be a name of the type, object, method, nothing like a usual name defined by a developer, it should really be a "keyword". It should be defined by the user, extend the language, and be usable since that moment of time. For now, let's just assume that such concept is introduced.

So, in particular, if some language, originally, before customization, has zero keywords, it means the following: the user can customize it, for example, by adding one keyword which can further be used. Now, we can devise a language that has, say, −5 keywords. This would be the language with the following property: to customize the language to have just one usable keyword, the customer will need to add 6 keywords; to get 5 usable keywords, the customer would need to add 10, and so on.

Provided the concept of the "custom keyword" is already available, the implementation of the language with negative number of keywords would be really quite simple. :-)

—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12T11:21:00

Solution 2

I still appreciate Solution 1. Please see my comments to is. Another, "cleaner" example of the languages with zero number of keywords would be the language which only has operators. You cannot call operator a "word", can you? :-)
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck[^].

—SA

Posted 12-Feb-14 11:21am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

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Richard C Bishop 12-Feb-14 17:30pm

That hurts my brain.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 17:45pm

We have not so very old saying: "Head cannot ache, because this is bone!". :-)
—SA

Richard C Bishop 12-Feb-14 17:47pm

LOL, that reminds me of "Confucious" sayings:

Confucious say, "Man who stand on toilet, is high on pot".

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 17:49pm

Great one... :-)
—SA

Richard C Bishop 12-Feb-14 17:58pm

Thank you, that is my favorite one.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 18:01pm

The whole idea to have pseudo-Confucious saying is great. In our University culture, we had a wonderful set of humorous pseudo-sutras. I already used one on CodeProject.
We have a very famous fictional writer of 19 century actually created by a group of several very bright people, named Kozma Prutkov. He is the author of several plays, essays, and wise sayings, with great deal of both absurdism and deep philosophical sense, importantly, vocalized by the apparently stupid (ridiculously ultra-conservative, etc.) person.

Perhaps the one most relevant to this page is this: "Throwing pebbles into the water, look at the ripples they form on the surface. Otherwise this activity will be an empty amusement." :-)

—SA

Matt T Heffron 12-Feb-14 18:34pm

APL?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-14 19:22pm

Isn't it nearly the same as the example of the language I referenced above, only without a need of using some foul language? (Through the use of abbreviation, probably?) :-)
—SA

Frank R. Haugen 13-Feb-14 9:58am

That's an aptly named programming language O.o

I was looking for simple, this is reduced to extreme complexity. Machine code or Assembly is at least readable :P

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-14 13:23pm

It really depends on what do you want to conduct in your teaching.
As I say, in the name of the language, some foul language is involved, but it anyway teaches us the Goodness. :-) :-)
—SA

Which programming language has the fewest "commands"/keywords? (just for fun)

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Which programming language has the fewest "commands"/keywords? (just for fun)

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