EPL

EPL is an "enfiladal transzigular" programming language created by Hakware in 2007. It is based on the works of Project Xanadu and on Befunge and assembly language. It is intended to be the executable format for the experimental OS Project XANA.

EPL consists of nine instructions (though a few more are planned to be added), all of which are a single ASCII graphics character with an ASCII code between 0 and 65. The instructions are chosen to represent the actual operation when viewed in the x86 text console, though most higher-level fonts display them entirely differently. An EPL program is constructed of a number of documents (like files) in a xanalogical database system like XU88 (Udanax Green) or XANA. Each document's title consists of the instruction followed by any text. Only the first character of the title, the first link, and the first transclusion matter. The document itself, the rest of the title, and the rest of the links and transclusions are ignored. The first link points to another document which contains the data structure that constitutes the source operand, and the first transclusion points to another document which contains the data structure that constitutes the destination operand. By using the 3span of said pointers, one can pass the pointed-to data through other EPL code before interpreting the current instruction. Looping is done via the CHUG instruction.

Because EPL is nonlinear, it must be edited with a transzigular editor such as ZigZag, GZZ, FenFire, or Project XANA's Z2 interface.

External resources

 * Project XANA
 * The official EPL documentation
 * Documentation on the Enfilade
 * Documentation on transpointers and transclusions
 * Wikipedia's entry on the Enfilade
 * The Project Xanadu webpage (with various explanations)