Is there a programming language with no controls structures or operators?

Question

Like Smalltalk or Lisp?

EDIT

Where control structures are like:

     Java                 Python               
 if( condition ) {     if cond:           
     doSomething           doSomething     
 }

Or

     Java                Python                  
 while( true )  {        while True:            
     print("Hello");        print "Hello"      
 }

And operators

 Java, Python
 1 + 2  // + operator 
 2 * 5  // * op

In Smalltalk ( if I'm correct ) that would be:

condition ifTrue:[
   doSomething
]

True whileTrue:[
   "Hello" print 
]
1 + 2 // + is a method of 1 and the parameter is 2 like 1.add(2) 
2 * 5 // same thing

Your question + first sentence reads: "Is there nothing that meets these criteria other than this thing that meets these exact criteria?" — Chris Lutz, Apr 28 '10 at 21:47

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:15

7

how come you've never heard of lisp before?

answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:15

user187291

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3

Depends on exactly what the OP wants. `(if exp1 exp2 exp3)` and `(+ exp1 exp2)` are certainly what I'd call control structures and operators (since in many cases, control structures and operators are just a different name for functions). Lambda calculus with church numerals may be as close to what the OP (may) wants. – Svend Apr 28 '10 at 19:30
I have, but I don't know if `+` in `(+ 1 2)` is a function or a language-builtin operator. I think as per Svend comment, they are regular functions, I've updated the question to what I mean ( In Smalltalk ) – OscarRyz Apr 28 '10 at 19:36
1

@Oscar: In Common Lisp, there is a short list of special forms, which are basic things that you otherwise can't do in the language, like `if`. Everything else built of functions, either directly or by use of macros. However, I'd say that `if` is a control structure. – David Thornley Apr 28 '10 at 20:12

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:20

You mean without special syntax for achieving the same?

Lots of languages have control structures and operators that are "really" some form of message passing or functional call system that can be redefined. Most "pure" object languages and pure functional languages fit the bill. But they are all still going to have your "+" and some form of code block--including SmallTalk!--so your question is a little misleading.

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 23 '11 at 22:01

7

Assembly
Befunge

edited Jun 23 '11 at 22:01

answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:17

Jeremy

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score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 28 '10 at 21:44

4

Prolog^*

_{*I cannot be held accountable for any frustration and/or headaches caused by trying to get your head around this technology, nor am I liable for any damages caused by you due to aforementioned conditions including, but not limited to, broken keyboard, punched-in screen and/or head-shaped dents in your desk.}

edited Apr 28 '10 at 21:44

OscarRyz

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answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:20

Manos Dilaverakis

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+1 heheheh I was once near to a Prolog manual and I thought... mmmhhh maybe tomorrow. – OscarRyz Apr 28 '10 at 21:46
@Oscar just the wikipedia page scared me away. – Earlz Apr 28 '10 at 23:52
It's a lot of fun to watch people who are new to both Prolog and vi try to learn both at the same time. – Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall' Jun 23 '11 at 22:30

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 23:45

Pure lambda calculus? Here's the grammar for the entire language:

e ::= x | e1 e2 | \x . e

All you have are variables, function application, and function creation. It's equivalent in power to a Turing machine. There are well-known codings (typically "Church encodings") for such constructs as

If-then-else
while-do
recursion

and such datatypes as

Booleans
integers
records
lists, trees, and other recursive types

Coding in lambda calculus can be a lot of fun—our students will do it in the undergraduate languages course next spring.

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:06

Forth may qualify, depending on exactly what you mean by "no control structures or operators". Forth may appear to have them, but really they are all just symbols, and the "control structures" and "operators" can be defined (or redefined) by the programmer.

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:01

2

What about Logo or more specifically, Turtle Graphics? I'm sure we all remember that, PEN UP, PEN DOWN, FORWARD 10, etc.

answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:01

NibblyPig

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I made my first ever real program in this (or something very similar) :) – Callum Rogers Apr 28 '10 at 19:10
IIRC, Logo is a dialect of LISP. – rmeador Apr 28 '10 at 20:15
@SLC: From your link, "Logo provides several common control structures". So I'd say that Logo does not meet the criteria of having no control structures. – Gabe Apr 28 '10 at 22:24
@Gabe It depends on the version though, the version most people use for turtle graphics simply executes a list of drawing instructions. – NibblyPig Apr 29 '10 at 07:03

Matt Ellen · Answer 8 · 2010-04-28T20:13:13.873

2

I'll be first to mention brain**** then.

edited Apr 28 '10 at 20:13

answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:39

Matt Ellen

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they are not structures they are commands. Otherwise the OP's example of small talk would be invalid. – Matt Ellen Apr 28 '10 at 20:24

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:09

2

The SMITH programming language:

http://esolangs.org/wiki/SMITH

http://catseye.tc/projects/smith/

It has no jumps and is Turing complete. I've also made a Haskell interpreter for this bad boy a few years back.

answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:09

Thomas Eding

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:22

In Tcl, there's no control structures; there's just commands and they can all be redefined. Every last one. There's also no operators. Well, except for in expressions, but that's really just an imported foreign syntax that isn't part of the language itself. (We can also import full C or Fortran or just about anything else.)

kennytm · Answer 11 · 2010-04-28T20:19:26.363

How about FRACTRAN?

FRACTRAN is a Turing-complete esoteric programming language invented by the mathematician John Conway. A FRACTRAN program is an ordered list of positive fractions together with an initial positive integer input n. The program is run by updating the integer (n) as follows:

for the first fraction f in the list for which nf is an integer, replace n by nf

repeat this rule until no fraction in the list produces an integer when multiplied by n, then halt.

Of course there is an implicit control structure in rule 2.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 18:59

0

D (used in DTrace)?

answered Apr 28 '10 at 18:59

Eimantas

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:05

0

APT - (Automatic Programmed Tool) used extensively for programming NC machine tools. The language also has no IO capabilities.

answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:05

Dave

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 19:55

XSLT (or XSL, some say) has control structures like if and for, but you should generally avoid them and deal with everything by writing rules with the correct level of specificity. So the control structures are there, but are implied by the default thing the translation engine does: apply potentially-recursive rules.

For and if (and some others) do exist, but in many many situations you can and should work around them.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:08

0

How about Whenever?

Programs consist of "to-do list" - a series of statements which are executed in random order. Each statement can contain a prerequisite, which if not fulfilled causes the statement to be deferred until some (random) later time.

answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:08

David

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 22:28

0

I'm not entirely clear on the concept, but I think PostScript meets the criteria, although it calls all of its functions operators (the way LISP calls all of its operators functions).

answered Apr 28 '10 at 22:28

Gabe

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 23:56

0

Makefile syntax doesn't seem to have any operators or control structures. I'd say it's a programming language but it isn't Turing Complete (without extensions to the POSIX standard anyway)

answered Apr 28 '10 at 23:56

Earlz

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score -1 · Answer 18 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

-1

So... you're looking for a super-simple language? How about Batch programming? If you have any version of Windows, then you have access to a Batch compiler. It's also more useful than you'd think, since you can carry out basic file functions (copy, rename, make directory, delete file, etc.)

http://www.csulb.edu/~murdock/dosindex.html

Example

Open notepad and make a .Bat file on your Windows box.
Open the .Bat file with notepad
In the first line, type "echo off"
In the second line, type "echo hello world"
In the third line, type "pause"
Save and run the file.

If you're looking for a way to learn some very basic programming, this is a good way to start. (Just be careful with the Delete and Format commands. Don't experiment with those.)

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Apr 28 '10 at 20:04

PowerUser

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Why do you think that having no control structures and operators would make a language automatically simpler? Actually I think having not those standard syntactic structures, it makes a language a lot harder. So he is obviously not asking for a simple language. – poke Apr 28 '10 at 20:20
What about FOR, IF, GOTO, and CALL? Aren't those all control structures? And ``, and `|` sure look like operators to me. – Gabe Apr 28 '10 at 22:19
This guy isn't asking for a beginning programming language.. Also, he has 4k rep. I do hope that people just learning their first language can't get rep that easily. – Earlz Apr 28 '10 at 23:57
@Earlz, Yes, I did see his 4k rep. He didn't explain why he needed it, but I inferred that he was trying to teach his young child how to program. – PowerUser Apr 29 '10 at 15:58
@Poke, if he was trying to teach his child the concept of programming and making the computer do something by typing commands, then a batch file would be a good way to go. No, you can't get very far with it, hence my statement that this would be a good place to Start. – PowerUser Apr 29 '10 at 16:00
@Gabe, yes those are control structures, but you don't NEED them to make a beginner's batch file. If he was teaching his kid how to program, then those structures can wait for a later day. – PowerUser Apr 29 '10 at 16:03
Yes, that's the same argument SLC used for turtle graphics. By that token, though, don't nearly all languages have this property? – Gabe Apr 29 '10 at 16:26

Is there a programming language with no controls structures or operators?

18 Answers18

Example