Description #
Chicken is an esoteric programming language in which the only valid token is the word “chicken.” The number of repeated “chicken” tokens determines the command executed.
History #
Created in 2002 by Torbjörn Söderstedt, Chicken was designed as a joke language inspired by Brainfuck, where “chicken” replaces all commands to create an absurd coding experience.
Hello World Code #
chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken
chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken
chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken
chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken
chicken chicken chicken chicken chickenHow to Run #
Option 1: Online
Chicken Interpreter on TIO
Option 2: Local
Download interpreter from GitHub or other repositories, then run the chicken code file using the interpreter command.
Key Concepts #
- Syntax style: Single word token “chicken” repeated
- Typing discipline: Unspecified (esoteric)
- Execution model: Interpreter-based
- Common use cases: Joke language, esoteric experiments
- Toolchain: Custom interpreters
- Paradigms: Minimalist, Turing-complete
- Compilation: None, interpreted directly
- Strengths: Extremely minimalistic and absurd
- Libraries: None
- Community: Very niche, mostly for fun
Try It Online #
Fun Facts #
- Chicken’s entire syntax consists only of the word “chicken” repeated multiple times.
- It’s designed purely for amusement and to challenge traditional programming norms.
- The language is Turing-complete despite its extreme minimalism.
- The command length is determined by the number of “chicken” tokens in a row.
- Chicken inspired other single-token esoteric languages with absurd syntax.
