Brainfuck is obscure, but only because of its restricted character set. 8 operators is not very expressive and requires large, but eventually recognizable, idio

Brainfuck is obscure, but only because of its restricted character set. 8 operators is not very expressive and requires large, but eventually recognizable, idioms to get most common tasks done. Languages like J [1] keep the terse syntax but have a much more expressive set of operators. J is also very regular, so once one knows the basic vocabulary the programmer is able to infer the meanings of more complicated operators. Compactness itself is not what obfuscates meaning. [1]: http://www.jsoftware.com/ http://www.jsoftware.com/