Nandcode

Nandcode was made by Benjamin F. Berger in 2026. It explores the absolute limits of computational minimalism by using NAND as its sole logical operation. Every logical gate, variable mutation, and hardware component is built entirely by chaining and reusing variables with this single primitive. The language is evaluated sequentially line-by-line. The runtime enforces a strict 64-bit virtual hardware environment mapped entirely within a single physical CPU register, requiring zero RAM allocation overhead during active execution layers. Every program in nandcode runs in O(N) time and O(1) space. All lines following a # are treated as comments.

Nandcode

Designed by	Benjamin F. Berger
Appeared in	2026
Computational class	Not Turing Complete
Major implementations	Repository

Keywords

• in: declares variables as inputs at the top of the file.
• out: declares variables as outputs at the bottom of the file.
• = assigns a value to a variable.
• !& or nand evaluates bitwise nand logic: !(A & B).

Constants

true and 1 are interchangable.

false and 0 are interchangable.

Constraints

Everything runs inside a single 64-bit register in the CPU.

Bits 0 and 1 in the virtual ram are reserved for the language.

A maximum of 62 variables can be declared in total.

Examples

Swap values x and y

in: x y
temp = x
x = y
y = temp
out: x y

x XOR y

in: x y
w = x !& y
x = x !& w
y = y !& w
x = x !& y
out: x

x OR y

in: x y
x = x !& x
y = y !& y
x = x !& y
out: x

x AND y

in: x y
x = x !& y
x = x !& x
out: x

NOT x

in: x
x = x !& x
out: x

Errors

Fatal Errors

error [nc001]: no arguments given

• cause: nand compiler run with no source filepath
• fix: pass a valid source as a argument for nand compiler

error [nc002]: gcc not installed

• cause: path to gcc compiler could not be found
• fix: ensure gcc is installed by running gcc --version in the folder you intend to compile from

error [nc003]: gcc failed to compile

• cause: nand compiler successfully created the intermediate c code, but gcc could not compile it
• fix: pray your code works next time

error [nc101]: not enough inputs

• cause: not enough inputs passed into compiled binary
• fix: pass the correct number of inputs into the compiled program, specified by the number of variables after in:, on the first line of your program

error [nc102]: code must end with out:

• cause: out: keyword not present in your program
• fix: add out: to the last line of your program

error [nc103]: source empty

• cause: pass empty source file to nand compiler
• cause: pass source file that does not contain in:
• fix: ensure your program is not empty and contains in: at the start of your program

error [nc201]: out of memory

• cause: exceed 62 assignable variable limit
• fix: try to recycle your variables by resetting their values with myVariable = 0

error [nc202]: variable undefined

• cause: using an undefined varible as an operand
• fix: define variables before using them as operands

Non-Fatal Errors (Warnings)

warn [nc401]: source does not end in .nand

• cause: source file does not end in .nand
• fix: rename your source file to end in .nand

warn [nc402]: program contains no inputs

• cause: no variables declared as inputs in the in: block of your program
• fix: declare inputs in the in: block of your program

warn [nc403]: program contains no outputs

• cause: no variables declared as outputs in the out: block of your program
• fix: declare outputs in the out block of your program