Turing tarpit

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title: "Turing tarpit" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["alan-turing", "recreational-mathematics", "theory-of-computation", "software-engineering-folklore"] description: "Intentionally obscure programming language" topic_path: "technology/computing" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Intentionally obscure programming language ::

A Turing tarpit (or Turing tar-pit) is any programming language or computer interface that allows for flexibility in function but is difficult to learn and use because it offers little or no support for common tasks.

Overview

The phrase was coined in 1982 by Alan Perlis in the Epigrams on Programming:

::quote 54. Beware of the Turing tar-pit in which everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy. ::

In any Turing-complete language, it is possible to write any computer program, so in a very rigorous sense nearly all programming languages are equally capable. However, having that theoretical ability is not the same as usefulness in practice. Turing tarpits are characterized by having a simple abstract machine that requires the user to deal with many details in the solution of a problem. At the extreme opposite are interfaces that can perform very complex tasks with little human intervention but become obsolete if requirements change slightly.

Some esoteric programming languages, such as P′′, Brainfuck or FRACTRAN, are specifically referred to as "Turing tarpits" because they deliberately implement the minimum functionality necessary to be classified as Turing complete languages. Using such languages is a form of mathematical recreation: programmers can work out how to achieve basic programming constructs in an extremely difficult but mathematically Turing-equivalent language.

References

References

1. (21 November 2014). "Turing Tarpit".
2. (September 1982). "Epigrams on Programming". Yale University.
3. (17 January 2012). "Exploring the depths of a Turing tarpit".
4. (2014). "Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty". Graywolf Press.
5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20020609152409/http://www.catseye.mb.ca/esoteric/index.html Esoteric Topics in Computer Programming], Cat's Eye Technologies, Canada. (''"They present the programmer with the challenge, intrigue, and entertainment of looking at known algorithms and concepts in a whole new light."'')

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::