[vvhitespace] / rationale.md

VVhitespace is descended from Whitespace, adding a vertical tab to the language
along with some restrictions to ease implementation. The name is intended to
embrace the spirit of Whitespace's visual incomprehensibility.

Since Whitespace ignores [VTab] as a comment character, and since the
Whitespace VM is a superset of the VVhitespace VM, all valid VVhitespace
programs are also valid Whitespace programs.

Locating a Whitespace interpreter capable of running all valid Whitespace
programs is left as an exercise for the reader. For the inquisitive, the
following program, read top-down, is both a valid VVhitespace and Whitespace
program. Does it terminate or infinitely loop?

    [Space]
    [Space]
    [Space]
    [Tab]
    [LF]
    [LF]
    [Space]
    [LF]
    [Space]
    [Tab]
    [LF]
    [LF]
    [Space]
    [Space]
    [VTab]
    [Space]
    [Tab]
    [LF]
    [LF]
    [LF]
    [LF]
Commit	Line	Data
cbbb46ce AT	1	VVhitespace is descended from Whitespace, adding a vertical tab to the language
	2	along with some restrictions to ease implementation. The name is intended to
	3	embrace the spirit of Whitespace's visual incomprehensibility.
	4
	5	Since Whitespace ignores [VTab] as a comment character, and since the
	6	Whitespace VM is a superset of the VVhitespace VM, all valid VVhitespace
	7	programs are also valid Whitespace programs.
	8
	9	Locating a Whitespace interpreter capable of running all valid Whitespace
	10	programs is left as an exercise for the reader. For the inquisitive, the
	11	following program, read top-down, is both a valid VVhitespace and Whitespace
	12	program. Does it terminate or infinitely loop?
	13
49867613 AT	14	[Space]
	15	[Space]
	16	[Space]
	17	[Tab]
	18	[LF]
	19	[LF]
	20	[Space]
	21	[LF]
	22	[Space]
	23	[Tab]
	24	[LF]
	25	[LF]
	26	[Space]
	27	[Space]
	28	[VTab]
	29	[Space]
	30	[Tab]
	31	[LF]
	32	[LF]
	33	[LF]
	34	[LF]