Pipe

Pipe is a language that was originally based off of brainf*ck, but has evolved into something different. The language moves data down through the different commands which can be interacted with. There also is an "infinite" two-diminsional array that can be interfaced with as well.

I hope this language challenges the mind in the form of creative thinking that brainf*ck does, but also challenge programmers to utilize the least amount of characters to complete a task.

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Intro

Pipe follows the same memory model as brainf*ck except for the fact that it is a two-diminsional "infinite" array of cells going in either direction all initialized to zero. Each index into the array is called a cell. There is a ptr that represents the current active cell. The following commands are the most primitive to Pipe:

cmd	description
>	Move the ptr right one cell
<	Move the ptr left one cell
+	Increment cell where ptr is at
-	Decrement cell where ptr is at
[	Continues to run the contained code until the current cell is zero
]	Ends a [ command
.	Copies content of the current cell into the pipe
,	Consume item from the pipe and place into the current cell

With those commands we can create a simple program:

SNIPPET

+++[.-]

OUTPUT:

321

A further break down of the program:

+++     // Increments the current cell by one three times.
   [    // Checks to see if the current cell is non zero.
    .   // Buffers the value of the current cell into the pipe.
     -  // Decrements the current cell by one.
      ] // Jump back to the '['. (Because is the last command pipes items directly into stdout)

Now, let us try to use , to take in a three which will look like:

SNIPPET

,[.-]

OUTPUT:

33

Well that did not work... Essentially, Pipe has data types which are currently NUMBER, STRING, and ARRAY. What we just did was place a STRING into the current cell from the pipe which came from the stdin. Then the [ evaluated the STRING and checked if is non zero (has characters). This then got to . which copied the current cell into the pipe. When you decrement a STRING it removes the first character placing it into the pipe. So, the pipe still contains two STRINGs which are "3" and "3".

,     // Places item from the pipe into the current cell.
 [    // Checks to see if the STRING has any more characters.
  .   // Buffers the value of the current cell into the pipe.
   -  // Pops the first character off of the STRING into the pipe.
    ] // Jump back to the '['. (Because is the last command pipes items directly into stdout)

To fix this merely place a # in after the ,. This will numberify the current cell which for a STRING turns it directly into a NUMBER.

SNIPPET

,#[.-]

OUTPUT:

321

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Literals

So far we have not done a Hello World for Pipe. Before we could do that we need to talk about literals. Literals are merely "What you put, is literally what you get". When a literal is created it is immediately placed into the pipe. For NUMBERs, we can use our # followed by a number:

SNIPPET

#321

OUTPUT:

321

For STRINGs we have two options. The first is ' which will make the literal everything following it that is [a-zA-Z0-9_ ] (There is a space character following the underscore). This command by itself will also stringify the current cell which for a NUMBER turns it into a STRING. This is enough for us to have a Hello World:

SNIPPET

'Hello World

OUTPUT:

Hello World

The second is " which will make the literal everything up to the end of that line. This command if by itself creates an empty STRING and places it into the pipe.

SNIPPET

"Hello World!

OUTPUT:

Hello World!