☭

☭

Paradigm(s)	imperative turing tarpit
Designed by	User:Dragoneater67
Appeared in	2026
Memory system	Cell-based
Dimensions	one-dimensional
Computational class	Unknown
Major implementations	C++
Influenced by	#b !I!M!P!O!S!S!I!B!L!E! Brainfuck
Influenced	⌬
File extension(s)	.hammerandsickle

☭ is an esoteric programming language made by User:Dragoneater67. The goal of the language is to make doing trivial operations nearly impossible.

Overview

The language is separated into 2 phases of execution. The overview is very brief as it is hard to explain the workings of ☭. Refer to the reference implementation to get a better understanding of the language.

Phase 1

Phase 1 reads the source string character-by-character and executes a command. The state is initialized with these values:

a = 0
w = 0
q = '?'
p = 0
h = '#'
g = 89404137

Before each command is executed g is regenerated using this formula:
$g_{\text{new}}=g\cdot 1664525+1013904223+a+w+h+q+p+c$
The command is determined by this formula ($o$ is the generated command, $c$ is the current character, $i$ is the position of the current character):
$o=\left(\left(\left((c\oplus q)+(i{\bmod {3}})+(g\gg 24)\right){\bmod {3}}\right)+3\right){\bmod {3}}$

Selector	Type	Operation
0	State mutation	Mutates internal accumulators and shifts keys: a += 3 w += 7 q -= 43 (Input key rotation) p -= 13 (Memory pointer shift) g ^= 0xCAFEBABE (PRNG scramble)
1	State mutation	Mutates internal accumulators and shifts keys: a -= 2 w -= 5 q += 67 (Input key rotation) p += 17 (Memory pointer shift) g += a ^ w (PRNG mix)
2	Instruction generation	Synthesizes a candidate byte b using the formula: $b=\neg \left(\left((a\lor w)\land h\right)\oplus q\oplus (g\land {\text{0xFF}})\right)$ Then, it is appended to the Phase 2 instruction tape. If b is invalid (not *, # or ?), the PRNG is penalized (g = 0xDEADBEEF).

Phase 2

Phase 2 is a virtual machine that executes the bytecode generated in phase 1. The virtual machine has:

• The unbounded memory tape (in the reference implementation the length is $10^{6}$)
• The unbounded instruction tape (in the reference implementation the length is $10^{6}$)
• The memory pointer
• The instruction pointer

The memory pointer is initially pseudorandom (derived from the source string), while the instruction pointer is always initialized to $0$. Instructions are single ASCII characters, any other ASCII character is an invalid character and will result in an error. Here is a quick overview of available commands:

Instruction	Condition	Operation
*	Instruction pointer is Odd	Adds 251 to the current memory cell, then moves the memory pointer forward by 999983 positions.
	Instruction pointer is Even	Reads a byte from input, XORs it with register q, and stores it in the current memory cell, then jumps back 3 steps.
#	Current memory cell is 0	Jumps back 7 steps, then modifies the instruction at that location by cycling it (* → # → ? → * → ...).
	Current memory cell is not 0	Moves the memory pointer backward by 999979 positions, then adds 241 to the current memory cell.
?	Memory pointer is Odd	Outputs the character at the current memory cell XORed with register h, then adds 239 to the current memory cell.
	Memory pointer is Even	If current memory cell is 0, skip forward 12 instructions. Otherwise, set both memory pointer and the instruction pointer to pseudo-random values derived from g.

The virtual machine has 8 internal registers:

1. a (uint8, phase 1 only, does not affect the state of the virtual machine)
2. w (uint8, phase 1 only, does not affect the state of the virtual machine)
3. h (uint8, the rolling encryption key for output)
4. q (uint8, the rolling encryption key for input)
5. p (unbounded, the memory pointer)
6. j (unbounded, The instruction count)
7. y (unbounded, the instruction pointer)
8. g (uint32, PRNG)

After each instruction is executed, y is incremented by 1, q is incremented by 197, and the new h is calculated using this formula ($t_{p}$ is current memory cell value and $b_{y}$ is the current instruction):
$h_{\text{new}}=((g\gg 16)\land {\text{0xFF}})\oplus h\oplus (t_{p}\land (b_{y}\lor q))$

Examples

XKCD RANDOM NUMBER

iKrupBIJ2Ge7eJB6Wjav-stfem+d8zvCao9=a60U29ceE0KStlgieCyrUoCq0n = xkcd(36);

External resources

• Github repository of ☭, includes the reference implemntation and examples

See Also

• ⌬
• Malbolge