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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 31 Oct 2007 16:50:02
Message: <4728f88a$1@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
> Tom York <alp### [at] zubenelgenubi34spcom> wrote:
>> What about
> 
>> http://catseye.tc/projects/befunge93/eg/mandel.bf
> 
>   Not much of a help trying to know how to implement it, as you can see...

OK. I want to see a befunge program that looks like a mandelbrot that 
generates a mandelbrot. :)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     Remember the good old days, when we
     used to complain about cryptography
     being export-restricted?


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From: Kevin Wampler
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 31 Oct 2007 17:51:35
Message: <472906f7$1@news.povray.org>
Since Befunge seems to support random-access storage with the "p" and 
"g" commands, I'd imagine that it should indeed be Turing complete 
(otherwise, completely without any sort of proof, I suspect that it 
would be equivalent to a pushdown automata).

Looking at the program Tom linked, it seems to make pretty heavy use of 
these commands.  I can imagine it was a monstrous pain to write though. 
  Anything in particular that inspired you to give it a shot, or did it 
just seem like an interesting puzzle?

Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> Out of curiousity, what kind of language or machine is this?
> 
>   Befunge.
> 
>   I tried to create a mandelbrot generator with it. Failed.
>


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 31 Oct 2007 19:13:52
Message: <47291a3f@news.povray.org>
Kevin Wampler <wampler+pov### [at] uwashingtonedu> wrote:
> Since Befunge seems to support random-access storage with the "p" and 
> "g" commands

  The problem is that those support only putting and getting a character.
To calculate the mandelbrot set with integers you need to handle pretty
large integral values.

  Ok, maybe it's possible to split a large integer into characters by
doing divisions and modulos (and multiplications and additions when reading),
but it becomes extremely cumbersome, especially with befunge (which, as far
as I can tell, doesn't support the concept of a subroutine, unless theres
a really clever way of emulating them).

  If befunge had just one extra command: "copy the nth value in the stack
to the top of the stack", everything would become much easier.
  Well, I suppose the purpose of this language is not to be easy to use. :P

>   Anything in particular that inspired you to give it a shot, or did it 
> just seem like an interesting puzzle?

  I wanted to try a completely different programming language, for fun.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 31 Oct 2007 19:25:28
Message: <47291cf8$1@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
> but it becomes extremely cumbersome,

It's pretty f'ing tedious with a three-color turing machine, too. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     Remember the good old days, when we
     used to complain about cryptography
     being export-restricted?


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 31 Oct 2007 19:33:40
Message: <47291ee4@news.povray.org>
Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > but it becomes extremely cumbersome,

> It's pretty f'ing tedious with a three-color turing machine, too. :-)

  The Thue programming language actually looks like an interesting concept.
Perhaps I will try to make a mandelbrot generator with it.

  From what I see, you really need to start from the very basics, by
defining things like binary addition and multiplication...

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Kevin Wampler
Subject: Re: Theoretical programming question
Date: 2 Nov 2007 02:02:24
Message: <472acb80$1@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
>   I wanted to try a completely different programming language, for fun.

I admire your dedication to it, I think Befunge would push my patience 
beyond its limits for anything much beyond "hello world".


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