Hello dear readers!
In this tutorial, I'll try to teach you the brainfuck language with simple words. After that, things will go more advanced.
If you are a n00b, all you have to do is sit on your chair and start reading. If you are more advanced or you know brainfuck, check for any mistakes.
1.1 What's brainfuck?
brainfuck -note that 'b' is in lowercase-, also known as brainf*ck, brainfsck or bf (in short), is an esoteric programming language and it's extreeme minimalistic. brainfuck is created by Urban Müller in 1993 with the intention of designing a language which could be implemented with the smallest possible compiler. Urban Müller managed to make his compiler for Amiga OS 240 bytes big! Then, some implemetions (Though he improved upon this later -- he informed me at one point that he had managed to bring it under 200 bytes).
1.2 Do I need it?
You don't really need it... It's good to make very small programs, by using a small compiler. Also, when using interpreter, may your programs be cross-platform
1.3 How strong will my programs be?
* Well, first of all, I must remind you that brainfuck is designed to be small. That means, no functions, no calling API etc.
* However, brainfuck doesn't have variables... How do you hold values? That's for later...
1.4 Ok. I am ready to start learning. What Do I need?
Simply: NOTHING!
Even just paper and pencil is nice... ok ok ok For passing the program to your computer you need an interpreter or a compiler (I'd prefer an interpreter) and a text editor. Even notepad / nano or sth like that is nice!
You also need a keyboard!
OK that was the big theory... now let's move on the practical part!
Well, why is brainfuck so difficult to be used? That's why brainfuck has just 8 commands, and they are all single ascii characters...
well, that's not even assembly!
Also, brainfuck has a pointer, that's called -so simply- 'the pointer', which is free to move arround within an array of 30000 bytes. The pointer is initialized to point to the beginning of the array and the 30000 bytes are all initialized to 0 (zero).
Well, time to see the commands:
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CODE: commands
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________________________________________________________________________ COMMAND FUNCTION =========================================================== > Moves the pointer one step to the right of the array. That means that increases the byte
pointer. < Moves the pointer one step to the left of the array. That means that decreases the byte
pointer. + Increases by one the pointed byte. - Decrease by one the pointed byte. . Output the value of the byte at the pointer. , Waits for one byte (one character) to be input and then stores its value in the pointed byte [ Jumps foreword to the matching ']' unless the pointed byte is zero (0) ] Jumps back to the matching '[' Unless the pointed byte is zero (0) ____________________________________________________________________________
Select what you want to copy and in doing so you will keep the formatting when pasting it.
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Also, notice that this program:
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CODE: addition
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+ Adds 1 + Adds 1 to 1 + Adds 1 to 2 + Adds 1 to 3 + Adds 1 to 4 + Adds 1 to 5 ++- Adds 1 the 6 and then subtracts 1 from 8; outputs EOF (NOTE THAT I DIDN'T USE COMMMAS IN
'COMMENTS' THAT'S BECAUSE IF I USE COMMA; THE COMPILER / INTERPRETER WILL CATCH IT! :P
Select what you want to copy and in doing so you will keep the formatting when pasting it.
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Could be written as well:
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CODE: addition2
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Select what you want to copy and in doing so you will keep the formatting when pasting it.
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Remember: the values which are stored in the array, they are single characters. When output, they're shown as explained in ASCII table (scroll down to see it when you finish the tutorial)
Now, you've learned much about brainfuck. Much enough to make programs! You don't need Me to tell You how to do special things, just like division... Find out yourself! (Even if there's in the links
)
Guys who are new in programming can stop reading here
The next part says how to write an interpreter for brainfuck, and may be useless to you!
YOU CAN ALSO SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE LINKS AND COMMENT THE TUTORIAL!
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3.0
Well, you want to make a brainfuck interpreter and don't know how to start? That's very simple. Read the tutorial!
How did I start? By telling you that there's a byte array with 30000 places and a byte pointer. In C/C++, you can do
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CODE: array
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char array[30000]; char *ptr;
Select what you want to copy and in doing so you will keep the formatting when pasting it.
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After that, you need file i/o to read the source files. On the continue, you may want to process every readed character. It's
simple. Just read the tutorial. The description each command says exactly what you have to do
. You may want to pass all
the commands in an array and then do you job! (that's more easy for '[' and ']' commands if you don't know good file i/o for
the language in which you are programming the interpreter, but you have limited space of commands).
Well, that's all!
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0xFFFFFFFF
Well, here are some good links:
Wikipedia article for brainfsck
http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/
Uranium-239 has brainfuck stuff in his site
Search Rohitab Forums for brainfuck stuff
Also, you can't miss the ASCII Table:
ASCII Table (click_here)
another table:
part1
part2
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remember: Think simply.
thetrojan01
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