Befunge Language

See (or don't since it's duplicated below (except for the link here, which is up-to-date)).

Befunge: n.

A worthy companion to INTERCAL; a computer language family which escapes the quotidian limitation of linear control flow and embraces program counters flying through multiple dimensions with exotic topologies. The Befunge home page is at .

Yet another EsotericProgrammingLanguage.


From the FAQ list:
Befunge is an interpreted, two-dimensional, stack-based programming language originally created in 1993 by ChrisPressey. Basically, Befunge is the first language (to our knowledge) to allow the program counter to move not only forwards and back, but also sideways. The source code for the language looks like garbage. It has been described as "a cross between Forth and Lemmings."

If you thought one-dimensional Go-To's were scary...

My own BiotaLanguage also has a program counter that could move in four directions. Not only did my work predate Chris Pressey by several years, the implementation was sold online at a net profit in 1991. -- WardCunningham

One of the design goals of Befunge, apparently, was to make a language impossible to compile. In university, I devised a proposal to get around this by designing a simple microprocessor which would, basically, run Befunge natively -- interpreting it in hardware, you could say. However, it was rejected as a topic for my bachelor's thesis, being of insufficient (none, really) practical value. I would like to get back to it someday, in my CopiousFreeTime... -- KarlKnechtel

Here's something you don't see every day, Befunge implemented in Algol-68:

What would TonyHoare say?
Is Befunge/Biota an inspiration for the PietLnguage??

-- RichardBotting

See: ForthLanguage SnuspLanguage

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