BrainFuck-Interpreter

BrainFuck Interpreter! Execute and test BrainFuck in the Command Line!

To use interpreter, you'll need to build, so far, I haven't published to NPM but that will come soon. You'll need a TypeScript compiler, I'm just using the one that came with IntelliJ, it works fine, but if you're in CLI, then navigate into the source dir and type tsc.

You'll see a directory called dist. Confirm that each source file is there, and each has a source map. Now type $ npm link or if you use yarn, $ yarn link. You now have a BrainFuck interpreter on your computer!

To use it, type bfc in a command line. You'll see a REPL. In here you can enter any BrainFuck code and it will run as though it had been executed through a file. The memory will persist between commands as though you are using multiple lines in a text file

REPL Commands

There are several commands you can use in the REPL to observe the state of the program as you enter commands.

Commands can have aliases. Below is a list of all commands and their respective aliases. Parameter patterns and names remain consisten across aliased commands.

• memory, mem
• history, his
• pointer, index, mem-loc
• dump
• clear, cls
• import, external, load

memory

The memory command handles the state of the memory registers.

> memory [arguments ...]

The memory command takes sub commands. They are:

• clear
• dump
• expand <value>
• reduce <value>
• fixed <size>
• set <index> <value>

clear: resets every memory location to 0 dump: prints the contents of memory to the command line expand: increases the memory capacity by value. reduce: reduces the memory capacity by value. fixed: allocate exactly size positions to memory. set: set value at location index to value.

history

The history command handles the REPL command history.

> history [operation]

The history command takes arguments:

• list
• clear

• list: prints the command history to the command line
• clear: clears the command history

pointer

The pointer command deals with the current memory pointer.

> pointer [operation]

The pointer command takes arguments:

• dump | *nothing*
• set
• reset

• dump: prints the pointer index to the command line
• set: sets the pointer index to value
• reset: resets the pointer index to 0

Imports

> import [file [... file]]

The import system allows the user to reference a file and execute it inside the REPL, allowing its debugging over a command line interface.

All arguments to the import command are filepaths relative to the CWD of the REPL script. This is printed when the REPL starts. A file path can only contain a space if it surrounded by quotes. There is no limit to file paths that can be provided.

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The Future of Brainfuck-Interpreter.

This project was inspired by a suggestion from YouTube. I saw the video and knew immediately what my next project was. I have also been interested in building a physical computer from wires and transistors. Combining them would be the next step. Since BrainFuck is such a simple language, writing a compiler / interpreter for it is not a particularly difficult taks. The next phase of this project is to write a computer that makes use of the brainfuck syntax as machine code statements. Since there are only 8 of them, the computer can get away with being 3 bits wide. For working memory, no more than eight bits (0 - 256) per index should be sufficient. In terms of actual computation, not much is required either. Simply an Adder / Subtracter and an increment / decrement. In order to create the looping constructs, a simple call stack system must exist. Since there are no conditionals as part of the language, jump statements are not necessary.