Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

s are designed to have small memory footprint, are easy to implement (important when porting a language to different computer systems), and/or have minimalist syntax and features. These programming languages have simple syntax and semantics, so one can learn them quickly and easily. Some lightweight languages (for example

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...

, and

Tcl TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company **TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited, a ...

) are so simple to implement that they have many implementations (dialects).

Compiled languages

BASIC

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

implementations like Tiny BASIC were designed to be lightweight so that they could run on the

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

s of the 1980s, because of memory constraints.

Forth

is a stack-based concatenative imperative programming language using

reverse polish notation Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as reverse Łukasiewicz notation, Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators ''follow'' their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in whi ...

Toy languages

Brainfuck

Brainfuck is an extremely minimalist esoteric programming language.

Scripting languages

Io

Io is a prototype-based object-oriented

scripting language A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting ...

Lisp

-like languages are very simple to implement, so there are many lightweight implementations of it. There are some notable implementations: * newLISP * PicoLisp * uLisp Derivatives of Lisp: *

Pico Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribei ...

* Rebol *

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Scheme A scheme is a systematic plan for the implementation of a certain idea. Scheme or schemer may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Scheme'' (TV series), a BBC Scotland documentary series * The Scheme (band), an English pop band * ''The Schem ...

Tcl

-like languages can be easily implemented because of its simple syntax. Tcl itself maybe not so lightweight, but there exists some, if not many, lightweight implementations of languages which have Tcl-like syntax.

Embedded languages

ECMAScript

There are many embeddable implementation of

ECMAScript ECMAScript (; ES) is a JavaScript standard intended to ensure the interoperability of web pages across different browsers. It is standardized by Ecma International in the documenECMA-262 ECMAScript is commonly used for client-side scripting o ...

like: * Duktape *

Espruino Espruino is an open-source JavaScript interpreter for single board microcontrollers. It is designed for devices with small amounts of RAM (as low as 8kB). Overview Espruino was created by Gordon Williams in 2012 as an attempt to make microcontr ...

JerryScript JerryScript is an ultra-lightweight JavaScript engine for the Internet of things. It is capable of executing ECMAScript 5.1 source code on devices with less than 64 KB of memory. The engine was open sourced on GitHub in June 2015. JerryScript i ...

jsish JavaScript Interpreter SHell (Jsish or Jsi for short) is a scripting language designed for use in embedded systems. It is a language used primarily by applications written in C or C++ using GNU tool-chains. MinGW provides Windows compatibility. ...

* MuJS *

QuickJS An ECMAScript engine is a program that executes source code written in a version of the ECMAScript language standard, for example, JavaScript. Just-in-time compilation engines These are new generation ECMAScript engines for web browsers, all im ...

Derivatives of ECMAScript: *

Squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

Lua

Lua is a small (C source is approx. 300 kB

tarball Tarball may refer to: * Tarball (computing), a type of archive file * Tarball (oil), a blob of semi-solid oil found on or near the ocean {{Disambiguation ...

, as of version 5.3.5), portable and embeddable scripting language (with

LuaJIT LuaJIT is a tracing just in time compiler for the Lua programming language. History The LuaJIT project was started in 2005 by developer Mike Pall, released under the MIT open source license. The second major release of the compiler, 2.0.0, ...

as a JIT compiler improving speed). It can be embedded in applications such as

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

s to provide runtime scripting capabilities.

Wren

Wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

is a small, fast, object-oriented scripting language.