WikiFreak

Note: This language was developed as a filler project and is not intended to be taken seriously.

WikiFreak is an output-only esoteric programming language created by User:DifferentDance8. It requires that each individual character in the output be sourced from a specific position within the plain text of a valid Wikipedia article. As such, WikiFreak inherently depends on live internet access and an active connection to Wikipedia in order to function.

Due to its reliance on live Wikipedia content, the language is both highly impractical for programming and extremely volatile: any modification or deletion of the referenced articles may cause the program's output to change or fail entirely. The interpreter strips HTML and formatting, producing only plain text for indexing.

Single-character article titles are prohibited. The language is case-sensitive, and space characters are treated as distinct characters.

Command

WikiFreak defines a single command:

OUT "[wikipedia url]" [index of letter]

This command outputs the character found at the specified zero-based index of the plain-text content of the given Wikipedia article. Comments are introduced with //. Aside from producing output, comments are the only other supported syntax element.

Example Programs

Note: The following examples were written on 14 August 2025. They may fail in the future due to changes in the referenced Wikipedia articles. This is by design.

Note 2: These examples were manually authored, as no automation tool currently exists for index selection. The manual process is tedious, and consequently only one program is provided.

Hello World

This program outputs the exact phrase Hello World (without punctuation). Valid as of 14 August 2025.

OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape" 4
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E621_(website)" 1 // case sensitive
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki" 3
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noalmark_Broadcasting_Corporation" 4
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)" 5
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_(punctuation)" 3 // intentionally uses the article on the space character
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UWU_(disambiguation)" 2
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(colour)" 15 // lowercase 'o' differs from uppercase 'O'
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea" 3
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(slang)" 15
OUT "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed" 3

Strategies

Three general approaches to selecting articles have been observed:

• Obscure Finder: Selects obscure or little-known articles that are less likely to be edited, reducing the risk of changes to character positions. However, these articles may be deleted entirely.
• Risk-Taker: Uses popular, well-established articles that are unlikely to be deleted. This approach carries a higher risk of index drift due to frequent edits.
• Cheater: Creates a personal subpage containing the alphabet or desired characters in sequence, enabling straightforward indexing. This is susceptible to deletion if discovered by Wikipedia administrators.