?Q?

?Q?(pronounced Qustjeon or /ˈkwɛstʎən/) is a esolang created in a afternoon by User:Yayimhere.

the official logo of ?Q?

name

the name comes from the file format .?Q? which is a file thats compressed, typically by the SQ program

memory

memory is stored in a string initially set to the empty string

syntax

• ~ add a ) to the string if the start of the string is (. to make it add a ( instead a & is placed before it
• . delete all brackets that does not have a matching bracket(so for example the string (() becomes ())
• […] set the string to …
• ? add a space to the code if the start of the string is (
• ! delete the end of the string
• , set string to user input
• $ output the string
• * go back to the start of the code if the string is not empty
• {…} append … to the string
• ` append the string to itself
• # if the following command has already been ran skip it
• : run the string as code
• @ reverse the string

tips

• if you want to only loop a specific part of the program add # to the part thhats before the loop.
• : makes it a little bit possible to create functions

examples

hello, world!:

[hello, world!]$

Cat:

,$

Looping counter:

{*\n}$!!*

unary exponent:

#{*}`*

Truth-machine with 0 as ) and 1 as 1:

#,$.*

computational class

?Q? is Turing complete since it can simulate a Bitwise Cyclic Tag with a ( as 1 and a space as 0. this is a substitution to do so:

11 : &~ 
10 : ?
0 : @!@

the program must end with a *. and to set up the datastring:

#{data} the data must be in ?Q? format

so the Collatz sequence provided on the BCT page is:

BCT program: 10 11 10 10 10 11 0 11 10 10 0 11 10 10 11 10 10 11 10 10 0 0 0 0
⇅
?Q? program: #{(  }?&~???&~@!@&~??@!@&~??&~??&~??@!@@!@@!@@!@*

note that the number of times ( is repeated in the append, is how many times 100 is added to the string. if you want to print the string every iteration $ can be added before the *. so the collatz sequence would become:

#{(  }?&~???&~@!@&~??@!@&~??&~??&~??@!@@!@@!@@!@$*

on the first 7 relevant iterations it prints(not including the semicolons) for the number 3:

?Q?      
step#   Collatz term     ?Q? data-string
-----   ------------     ------------------------
0000         3           (  (  (  ;
0096         5           (  (  (  (  (  ;
0240         8           (  (  (  (  (  (  (  (  ;
0432         4           (  (  (  (  ;
0528         2           (  (  ;
0576         1           (  ;
0624         2           (  (  ;

and the script for number the number 3:

#{(  (  (  }?&~???&~@!@&~??@!@&~??&~??&~??@!@@!@@!@@!@$*