Introduction

BrainFoamKit, or BFK as I like to call it, is a project that aims to implement a brainf**k, (or BF) interpreter in Rust. To make things easier for myself, and to keep up with the times, I have added one more instruction However, it's not JUST an interpreter. The broader scope aim of this project is to implement a complete, if poorly designed, and functional Virtual Machine (the BFKVM) that can interpret the instructions and allow for us to take a cross-section look as it executes the BFK program.

For this purpose, the project has three distinct parts:

1. brainfoamkit_lib, a library that implements the BFKVM and the interpreter for BFK.
2. bfkrun, a binary that can be used to run programs written in either BF or BFK dialects.
3. bfkview, a TUI application with a (hopefully) intutive interface that lets you step through BF[K] programs.

Rationale

Brainf**k is an interesting esoteric language. It is turing complete and can theoretically be used as a general purpose programming language. However, it has only 8 individual symbols that are used to instruct the interpreter. This makes it both fun and challenging to implement.

While several C and C++ interpreters for Brainf**k exist, I believe that it is particularly well suited for implementation in Rust due the combination of memory-safety, speed and zero-cost abstractions. Additionally, the interpreter is expected to be non-trivial in complexity while still only scratching the surface of the features Rust has to offer. Thus, it provides an excellent educational opportunity for someone trying to learn Rust.

Implementation Details

Briefly, the interpreter is implemented as a Virtual Machine on top of the existing Rust runtime. This frees us from low-level hardware constraints, allowing us to focus on the core of the program. The language remains focused on Byte-level operations and the ASCII code.

More details regarding the implementation, including an EBNF grammar and other design tradeoffs can be found in the language reference pages for the original BF Specification and the BFK dialect.

(Planned) Features

• A complete brainfuck interpreter capable of ingesting a brainfuck program and behaving appropriately
• A modular system for the said interpreter, allowing for extensions and modifications
• A configurable brainfuck virtual machine to interpret the programs.
• A fully capable TUI to visualize and step through a brainfuck program

Current Status

• Implement basic building blocks for the Virtual Machine
• Implement the Virtual Machine to run the code
• Implement a parser for parsing the input program
• Design the TUI for the visualizer
• Implement the TUI with the Virtual Machine and parser

Progress for the project can be tracked on the Github Issues and the Github Project pages.

Contributing

See the Contributing for details on how to contribute to the project.

You can contribute to the project through GitPod.

Code of Conduct

This project is governed by the Contributor Code of Conduct Covenant. Details are outlined in the CODE OF CONDUCT.