Have you ever heard of a programming language that consists of only eight commands and requires one to think like a computer to write even the simplest of programs? If not, then welcome to the world of Brainfuck!

Introduction to Brainfuck

Brainfuck is a minimalist programming language that was created in 1993 by Urban Müller as a joke, but has since become a cult classic among programmers. It is often used to demonstrate the concepts of programming languages, computational theory, and Turing completeness. The language consists of only eight commands, each represented by a single character: ‘>’, ‘<’, ‘+’, ‘–‘, ‘.’, ‘,’, ‘[’, and ‘]’. Despite its simplicity, Brainfuck can perform any computation that a Turing machine can perform, making it a truly powerful language.

The Eight Commands of Brainfuck

Let’s dive into the eight commands and see what make Brainfuck a truly unique programming language:

Example of a simple loop in Brainfuck

In Brainfuck, loops are created using the ‘[‘ and ‘]’ commands. The ‘[‘ command acts as the starting point of a loop, and the ‘]’ command acts as the end point of a loop.

When the interpreter encounters a ‘[‘ command, it checks the value of the current cell. If the value is 0, it jumps to the corresponding ‘]’ command. If the value is not 0, the interpreter continues to execute the commands within the loop.

At the end of each iteration, the interpreter will check the value of the current cell again, and if it is still not 0, it will continue to execute the commands within the loop. This process will repeat until the value of the current cell is 0, at which point the interpreter will jump to the corresponding ‘]’ command and continue to the next command after the ‘]’ command.

Here is a little example:

,      read one Character of input into cell #1
>      go to cell #2
++++   increment the value of cell #2 by 4
[      if current cell (#2) value > 0 loop
  <    go to cell #1
  .+   print the value of cell #1 then increment it
  >-   go back to cell #2 and decrement it
]      if current cell (#2) value > 0 go loop start

If you now input an ‘A‘ it will output ‘ABCD‘.

One could argue, that this doesn’t seem so bad, but wait! Most of the time you will get rid of all these “unnecessary” new lines and enjoy the pure essence, of what Brainfuck really looks like:

,>++++[<.+>-]

In it’s base, Brainfuck as a esoteric programming language looks like a cat ran over a keyboard. But this is in fact code. Executable code. Some kind of art, some might say.

Why Learn Brainfuck?

So, why would someone want to learn Brainfuck, you may ask? Well, it’s a fun and unique challenge, and it’s also a great way to understand how low-level programming works and how computers think. Plus, once you understand Brainfuck, other programming languages will seem like a breeze.

You can write and test your own Brainfuck code at https://gc.de/gc/brainfuck/ or transform your text into Brainfuck code at https://copy.sh/brainfuck/text.html.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Brainfuck is a strange and entertaining programming language that every programmer should try at least once in their lifetime. Don’t be intimidated by its simplicity, as its power lies in its elegance. Just remember to take it one command at a time, and have fun!