January 3, 2026
Nothing to see here—literally
Doesnt: An Esoteric Programming Language
A programming language that only says what it won’t do has nerds cackling and arguing
TLDR: DOESNT, a new “say what it won’t do” programming language, landed with a fix for infinite loops and a corrected link. Fans are delighted by its artsy, backwards design, comparing it to classics and jokes, while others wonder if it’s more sculpture than tool—and that’s the fun.
Internet weirdos rejoice: a new esoteric programming language called DOESNT just dropped, and it only tells your computer what it refuses to do. Think reverse-instructions. The creator even had a sitcom moment—“oops, wrong link”—before posting the real code here, and the crowd loved the chaos. Another fan tossed in a neat explainer page too: this one.
Old‑school esolang heads showed up fast. One fan cheered that DOESNT is the “mirror opposite of Thue” (a classic rule-rewriting language) and said it “makes me think of COMEFROM,” a legendary tongue-in-cheek programming gag. Another reader, hooked by the line “a program only states what it doesn’t do,” immediately went hunting for the rest of the “Forty‑Four Esolangs” ideas the language came from. The vibe: part museum, part meme, all chaos.
Under the hood, the hot topic is a dramatic “!!” symbol that kills a rule instantly to stop infinite loops—simple, brutal, and very esolang. The only demo so far adds numbers (ironically by declaring what not to match), which split the room between “artful sculpture” and “ok but can it do anything else?” Either way, the community’s buzzing: a language built from negatives just made the nerdiest corner of the web feel very, very alive.
Key Points
- •DOESNT is an esoteric programming language inspired by “Language 18” from Forty-Four Esolangs, where programs specify what they don’t do.
- •The language operates as a single string rewriting system with the program string stored in a ring buffer.
- •Rules match the longest possible prefix before encountering a pattern they do not take; negative matching guides application.
- •A `!!` marker forces immediate rule rejection to prevent infinite loops caused by backtracking.
- •A sample program implementing addition is provided, and the implementation is available at https://www.sheeeeeeeep.art/raw/DOESNT.lua.