Show HN: A partial HTTP server written in brainfuck extended with syscalls

[ww520]

I think the best approach for the Brainfuck madness is to write a compiler/transpirer from a high level language (e.g. LOLCODE) to generate Brainfuck code. Then you can write your app in the high level language and show off the generated Brainfuck code.

[thenewwazoo]

If anyone out there in Internet land is going to do this, please, please select INTERCAL as the high-level language, I implore you.

[greglindahl]

It's really cute how the author added $ to insert a debugging break into the source. Instead of "debugging by printf", which is a bit tedious in brainfuck, this is driving your debugger by editing the source code. Bravo!

[umanwizard]

You laugh, but Python works the same way.

[autotune]

It's fantastic how the author was able to get this up and running, but not the hello world example.

[ajyoon]

listen...

[tlrobinson]

This is perhaps the most Hacker News headline ever.

[andreaorru]

This is madness. Also, has anyone noticed the Brainfuck interpreter is written in assembly?!

[Rhinobird]

>the Brainfuck interpreter is written in assembly?!

Having reached the lowest level of the machine, they started digging...

[nickthemagicman]

Lol and assembly is more readable.

[gregmac]

Isn't leaving comments or whitespace in brainfuck code considered bad form?

[ajyoon]

There is a minified version here if you're into that kind of thing https://github.com/ajyoon/systemf/blob/master/examples/http/...

[forgotmyacc]

lol

[jksmith]

Is this idiomatic Brainfuck?

[cwmma]

can we talk about how github has code highlighting supports brainfuck?

I didn't really expect that

[kevincox]

I was impressed, but then again it's like a 1h project so anyone with an interest can do it.

[grabcocque]

Please, I have a family. Don't do this.

[partycoder]

Because the brainfuck syntax is very simple, it's not really hard to generate a valid program from random characters.

The language is also Turing complete.

It is possible to use genetic programming (and other approaches) to generate brainfuck programs without an insane amount of effort.

Eventually the resulting program can be processed to be made more efficient.

[le-mark]

So we've come to this. At least it's not another javascript framework (ducks).

[yoz-y]

Baby steps, but we will eventually get to reactive-brainfuck.

[mi100hael]

I don't know whether to be impressed or scornful that it's interpreted rather than compiled.

[ajyoon]

I was surprised to learn that this has got to be one of the only languages which is easier to compile than interpret. When compiled the language reduces to basically a single-register assembly with a one-to-one character-to-line ratio. Bracket branching can be extremely easily implemented with jump labels and `test` + `jnz` statements without having to worry about things like parsing and jump table construction at all.

[this-dang-guy]

So delighted to see this :D I once fail/won with a paper in whitespace. I love the non-traditional programming languages. They're fun, whimsical, and sometimes a nice break.

LOLCode is still my favorite though. I wrote a prime number generator in it for fun :)

[raw23]

I think the author is a masochist

[Pica_soO]

The author wrote parts of sauerbraten, he is a cool guy and not afraid of anything.

[bweitzman]

Why call it systemf? That name is already taken: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_F

[poizan42]

Didn't you get the memo? We ran out of names about 10 years ago, so now everything is fair game

[rui314]

Would it be easier to write a HTTP server in C and compile to Brainfuck using ELVM (https://github.com/shinh/elvm)?

[ajyoon]

Much easier, the equivalent C would be in the area of 15-20 statements