Exotic Programming Language: Brainfuck
Brainfuck, created by Urban Müller in 1993, is considered an exotic programming language due to its limited practical use in developing applications. Its design aims to be deliberately difficult to read, hence its name "Brainfuck" (literally "brain" for brain and "fuck" for disrupt), highlighting its complexity. This language is often used as a means to obfuscate messages, adding an extra layer of security to communication.
While Brainfuck may seem challenging to master, it is theoretically possible to create any program with it since it is Turing-complete. However, the resulting complexity makes it impractical for common tasks. The Brainfuck language consists of only eight primary instructions, each with a specific effect on the pointer and the value of the pointed byte.
| Character | Effect |
|---|---|
| > | Increment the value of the pointer by 1 |
| < | Decrease the value of the pointer by 1 |
| + | Increment the value of the pointed byte |
| - | Decrease the value of the pointed byte |
| . | Output (display) the pointed byte in ASCII format |
| , | Input a byte at the pointer location (ASCII format) |
| [ | Jump to the instruction after the ] if the pointed byte has a zero value |
| ] | Return to the instruction just after the [ if the pointed byte is different from zero |
These instructions, though minimalistic, enable the coding of all possible functions, with the brackets [ and ] serving as loop constructs. Thus, control structures such as if...else conditions can be implemented. The following example illustrates a simple "Hello World" program.
++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++
..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+.>.
For more information and additional examples, you can visit the Wikipedia page dedicated to Brainfuck. Although Brainfuck is rarely used for serious applications, there is a Brainfuck interpreter page available. However, it's important to note that Brainfuck is not a encryption method, even though it can be used as an obfuscation tool to "encrypt" text in a specific way.