Jelly
Jelly is a code-golf programming language designed for writing the shortest code possible. It was created by Dennis Mitchell and is frequently used in competitive programming challenges where every character counts. The language relies heavily on Unicode symbols and implicit behavior to achieve extremely compact logic.
Language Type: Code Golf
Released: 2015
Creator: Dennis Mitchell
Typing: Dynamic
Execution Style: Stack-based, vectorized, implicit I/O
Example (Hello World):
“Hello, World!
(Note: The first symbol is not a normal quote — it's a Jelly string literal token.)
Another Example (Sum 1 to 10):
10Ṣ
This prints the sum from 1 to 10 using only two characters.
How It Works:
- Uses a stack machine to evaluate expressions.
- Many operations are overloaded to work on lists automatically.
- Strings, prints, and loops are often implicit.
- Most commands are one Unicode symbol to reduce character count.
Where to Run:
You can run Jelly online at TIO.run by selecting the Jelly interpreter.
Should You Learn It?
- For jobs: No
- For code-golf competitions: Yes
- For readability: No
- For fun chaos: Absolutely
Summary:
Jelly is powerful but strange. It allows incredibly short solutions at the cost of clarity. If you enjoy compression, clever shortcuts, and pushing language limits, Jelly is worth exploring — otherwise it feels like programming with hieroglyphics.
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