Whitespace (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:18, 30 October 2023

Revision as of 18:18, 30 October 2023

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[[File:Whitespace in vim2.png|right|206px|thumb|Whitespace [[hello world program]] with syntax highlighting {{legend|#0000ab|tabs}} {{legend|#ab0000|spaces}}]] <!-- make SVG file -->

'''Whitespace''' is an [[esoteric programming language]] developed by Edwin Brady and Chris Morris at the [[University of Durham]] (also developers of the Kaya and [[Idris (programming language)|Idris]] programming languages). It was actually invented as a joke. It was released on 1 April 2003 ([[April Fool's Day]]). Its name is a reference to [[whitespace character]]s. Unlike most programming languages, which ignore or assign little meaning to most whitespace characters, the Whitespace interpreter ignores any non-whitespace characters. Only [[Space character|spaces]], [[Tab character|tabs]] and [[linefeed]]s have meaning.<ref name="whitespace">{{cite web|url=http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/tutorial.php|title=Whitespace|website=Compsoc|access-date=2015-12-08|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618184706/http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/tutorial.php|archive-date=18 June 2015}}</ref><ref name=parker>{{cite book|title=Humble Pi: a comedy of maths errors|publisher=Allen Lane|date=2019|first=Matt|last=Parker|author-link=Matt Parker|ISBN=978-0-241-36023-1|page=21}}</ref>

A consequence of this property is that a Whitespace program can easily be contained within the whitespace characters of a program written in a language which ignores whitespace, making the text a [[polyglot (computing)|polyglot]].<ref name=parker />

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The idea of using whitespace characters as operators for the [[C++]] language had been facetiously suggested five years earlier by [[Bjarne Stroustrup]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stroustrup.com/whitespace98.pdf |title=Generalizing Overloading for C++2000 |first=Bjarne |last=Stroustrup |publisher=AT&T Labs |___location=Florham Park, NJ, USA |access-date=2014-01-23}}</ref>

Whitespace was actually invented as a joke.

== Syntax ==