brain

brain is a high level programming language that compiles into brainfuck. It is implemented using the Rust programming language.

brainfuck is an esoteric programming language with 8 very simple instructions. Unfortunately, brainfuck code is quite difficult to understand and write. brain makes it easier to write brainfuck programs by allowing you to write in a more familiar syntax. The compiler is designed to optimize the generated brainfuck code as much as possible.

Optimization Goals

1. Generate small brainfuck files (use as few instructions as possible)
2. Generate memory efficient code (use as few brainfuck cells as possible)

As the project reaches 1.0.0, these goals will become more expressed in the compiled output of the program.

Usage

This project contains both the brain compiler and a basic brainfuck interpreter.

Make sure you have rust and cargo (comes with rust) installed.

brain compiler

To compile a brain (.brn) file into brainfuck (.bf) cargo run -q --bin brain -- filename.brn where filename.brn is the brain program you want to compile

Use --help to see further options and additional information cargo run -q --bin brain -- --help

If the brain compiler seems to be taking too long or "hanging", try running cargo build first to see if the rust compiler is just taking too long for some reason.

brainfuck interpreter

The brain compiler only officially targets this brainfuck interpreter. You may experience varying results with other brainfuck interpreters/compilers. There really isn't a definitive spec on how brainfuck should behave so it is just easier to have a static compilation target that won't vary in how it behaves.

To run brainfuck programs: cargo run -q --bin brainfuck -- filename where filename is the brainfuck program you want to run

Examples

There are various brain examples in the examples/ directory which you can compile into brainfuck using the usage instructions above.