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| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 39 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | nand.f | 1 | ||||
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diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45d0fc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +# Flip + +Flip is a single-instruction Turing-complete programming language. + +Let me break that down for you: + +- Turing-complete means that Flip can do basically anything given enough time and memory. Anything! + +- Single-instruction means that Flip only has one instruction. WTF, one instruction? + +Flip uses a single 2-by-infinity array of bits for memory. That's all the memory you get, sorry. + +The only instruction is `flip(x, y)` where `x` is 0 or 1 and `y` is an integer. This flips the bit at index `(x, y)` in the array and returns the flipped value. You can nest `flip(x, y)`, but only for the first parameter. So, `flip(flip(flip(a, b), c), d)` is valid while `flip(flip(a, b), flip(c, d))` is not. + +You'll probably get tired writing `flip` and parentheses all day, so [unlike in Lisp](https://xkcd.com/297/), you can throw out all the parentheses and `flip` instructions. Thus, Flip programs look like this: +``` +0 0 +0 1 +0 0 2 +0 2 1 3 +0 3 +``` + +That means the same thing as +``` +flip(0, 0) +flip(0, 1) +flip(flip(0, 0), 2) +flip(flip(flip(0, 2), 1), 3) +flip(0, 3) +``` + +We think you'll agree that the first version is way more aesthetically pleasing and forgiving for your pinky finger. + +If you haven't figured it out yet, the Flip program above is [NAND](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAND_logic#Making_other_gates_by_using_NAND_gates)! Currently, the final line outputs 0, but remove either of the first two lines, and the final output becomes 1. This makes Flip (drumroll please)... Turing complete! + +Even better, a Flip interpreter can be trivially implemented in your favorite programming language. See [Flipper](flipper.py) for the official reference implementation written in Python. + +So if you're ever feeling down about how horrible today's modern programming languages are, try writing some Flip to flip your day around! @@ -1,4 +1,5 @@ 0 0 +0 1 0 0 2 0 2 1 3 0 3 @@ -1,4 +0,0 @@ -0 0 -0 0 -0 0 -0 0 |