AsciiDots - Esoteric Language

An esolang inspired by ascii art

_ _ _____        _       
/\            (_|_)  __ \      | |      
/  \   ___  ___ _ _| |  | | ___ | |_ ___
/ /\ \ / __|/ __| | | |  | |/ _ \| __/ __|
/ ____ \\__ \ (__| | | |__| | (_) | |_\__ \
/_/    \_\___/\___|_|_|_____/ \___/ \__|___/

> Featured on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14947449), [Motherboard](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a33dvb/asciidots-is-the-coolest-looking-programming-language) ([slashdot comments](https://developers.slashdot.org/story/17/08/13/2033239/new-asciidots-programming-language-uses-ascii-art-and-python)), and [i-programmer](http://www.i-programmer.info/news/98-languages/11115-asciidots-a-language-like-a-racetrack.html).

AsciiDots is an esoteric programming language based on ascii art. In this language, _dots_, represented by periods (`.`), travel down ascii art paths and undergo operations.

See its [documentation and online demo](https://ajanse.me/asciidots) to learn more.

[![AsciiDots counter example](./dots_debug.gif)](https://ajanse.me/asciidots/?code=ICAgICAvMSMtLgogICAgIHwKICAgLy0rLSQjXAogICB8IHwgICB8CiAgWytdPDEjLSoKICAgfCAgICAgfAogICBcLS08LS0vCiAgICAgIHwKICAgICAgMAogICAgICAjCiAgICAgIHwKICAgICAgLg==)

**Table of Contents**

- [Samples](#samples)
- [Installing](#installing)
- [Using the Interpreter](#using-the-interpreter)
- [Documentation](https://ajanse.me/asciidots)
- [Examples](#examples)

## Samples

Hello world:

.-$"Hello, World!"

[Quine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)):

($'.-#40-$_a#-#36-$_a#-#39-$_a#)

Counter:

 /1#-.
 |

  .

Semi-compact factorial calculator:

/-----------~-$#-& | /--;---| [!]-\ | ------++--#1/ | | /1#\ || []{-}-~<+?#-. -------+-</ -#0----/

Code-golfed counter (15 bytes) by @ddorn:

/.*$#-\ {+}1#/

## Installing

> [!NOTE]  
> The easiest way to try asciidots is through its [online demo](https://ajanse.me/asciidots) or [Try it Online (tio.run)](https://tio.run/#asciidots)

**Using pip**:

pip install asciidots

**Using Docker Hub**:

Run sample program from this repo:

docker run -ti --rm aaronduino/asciidots samples/hello_world.dots

Run local file `test.dots`:

docker run -ti --rm -v $PWD:/data aaronduino/asciidots /data/test.dots

**From source**:

git clone https://github.com/aaronjanse/asciidots pip install -r requirements.txt

and only if on windows:

python -m pip install windows-curses

Run it from source using:

python main.py [arguments]

or alias it to `asciidots` using:

on Ubuntu, replace .bash_profile with .bashrc

echo "alias asciidots='python $(pwd)/main.py'" >> ~/.bash_profile source ~/.bash_profile

## Using the Interpreter
The interpreter for this language is the `__main__.py` file. It can be run from the terminal using the `python` command. The first argument is the `dots` file that you wish the interpreter to run.

Here's an example of running the counter sample program (the working directory is the dots repo folder):

```bash
$ asciidots ./samples/counter.dots

Here is the list of available flags:

-t [ticks]        Run the program for a specified number of ticks (Default to 0: no limit)

-o [output-limit] Run the program for a specified number of outputs (Default to 0: no limit)

-s                Run without printing ANYTHING to the console. Useful for benchmarking

-d                Run the program in debug mode. It shows the program and highlights the dots with red. Press enter to step the program once.

Some extra flags when debugging:
-a [delay]        Step the program automatically, using the specified delay in seconds. Decimal numbers are permitted, and so is 0.

-w                Run the program without using ncurses. This can fix problems related to Windows.

-l [line-count]   When not in compatibility mode, reserve the specified number of the lines for displaying the program

This is how one might debug the program found at samples/counter.dots for 300 ticks, while running it automatically with a delay of 0.05 seconds per tick:

$ asciidots samples/counter.dots -t 300 -d -a 0.05

More Examples

Hello, World!

.-$"Hello, World!"

Test if two input values are equal:

       /-$"Equal"
       |
.-#?-*-~-$"Not equal"
     | |
     \[=]
       |
       ?
       #
       |
       .

Counter:

     /1#-.
     |
   /-+-$#\
   | |   |
  [+]<1#-*
   |     |
   \--<--/
      |
      0
      #
      |
      .

Fibonacci Sequence Calculator:

/--#$--\
|      |
>-*>{+}/
| \+-/
1  |
#  1
|  #
|  |
.  .

Find prime numbers:

%$T

        .
        |
        #
        3
        |
        @
        1
        |
/--*--*-<--\
|  |  |   /+----\
|  #  |   v+-0@-~-\
|  2  | /->~*{%}/ |
|  |  | 1  |\-+---/
|  |  | @  ^\ |
\-{+}-+-*  01 |
      | |  ## |
      | v--*+-/
      | |  ||
    /-* |  *+--\
    | T |  ||  |
    # $ # /~/  |
    0 # 1 */   |
    | | | |    |
    \->-+-~----<-#$-2#-.
        \-/

 /--------\
 T        |
 *--------~
 |        |
 \-*----@[=]
   |      |
   \--#1--/

And a game!

/-""$-.
|
\--$"Pick a number between 1 and 255 (inclusive)"\
/------------------------------------------------/
\--$"I will correctly guess that number after no more than 8 tries"\
/---------------------------------------------------------------""$/
\--$"After each of my guesses, respond with: "\
/---------------------------------------------/
\--$"     '2' if I guess too high,"\
/----------------------------------/
\--$"     '1' if I guess too low,"\
/---------------------------------/
\--$"  or '0' if I guess correctly"\
/----------------------------------/
|
|                             /->-\
|         /--------------\ /-[-]| |
#         |           /#1\-~--+[+]|
6         |          /*-{-}*  | | |
4  /2#\   |     /----~-----+--+-+-+-#7-$a_#-$"I won! Good game!"-&
|/{/}-*---*     *----/     |/-~-/ |
||    |/--+-----+------\   \+-/   |
\>----~#  #     \-?#-*-+----/     |
      |1  1  /$""-$#-/ |          |
      \/  |  ~---------*----------<-821#-.
          \--/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.