laraost / tim

The two-dimensional instruction machine

tim

This is a computing machine controlled by a 2-dimensional input language. Here's an example (examples/multiply):

v This program multiplies numbers in the first and second register and stores the result in the third register
. This program cannot handle negative numbers. If one of the inputs is negative, the program enters an infinite loop.
.
. Now go through a loop until the first register is 0.
. In the loop:
.       - decrement the first register
.       - add the second register onto the third
.
.   Test the first register here
.   |            Print the third register (the result) and exit
.   |            |
.   v            v
>.[.\............]]dx
.   -
.   >].>.\.]].>.\.[[.v
.      . .    . .    .
.      . .    . .    .
.      . -    . -    .
.      [ ]    ] [    .
.      . +    . .    .
.      [ ]    ] [    .
.      . +    . +    .
.      . .    . .    .
.      ^.<    ^.<    .
.                    .
^....................<

Here's another example. This one prints and decrements the first register until it is zero:

d-\x>
  >.^

There are 10 "tapes". The initial values for the registers on tape 0 are read from standard input (or set to zero if none are provided).

It's written in Python 3. Run machine.py with the argument /path/to/input/file to be amazed.

We can chain multiple programs together, for example:

echo "3 5" | ./machine.py examples/multiply | ./machine.py examples/loop