This project is trying to be a turing machine. I wrote it in rust (this being my first rust project), to get to know the language a bit better. The code probably has a lot of potential for improvement and PRs are welcome.
In this chapter I explain the concepts of the machine.
The machine has a memort, which is adressable trough an u8 number (0-255), which are displayed in HEX. The first 0x0F characters can be printed as of now, if you write to the later ones, they will be written and stored, but not displayed. Maybe I will add a way to display them later.
Every adress can hold an u8 number (0-255). The memory is stored in a rust vector, which is a growable array. Every adress has the default value of 0, but that can be set programmatically. The memory functions begin with :mem and are defined in the chapter about the scripting language.
The source, or code, is just like the memory, stored in a vector of u8 numbers. The first 0x0F can be printed as of now, if you write to the later ones, they will be written and stored, but neither displayed nor read, as the eye (next chapter) does not go further than 0x0F. This will also hopefully change in the future. Now in every address you can store one line of code. The way the code works is a mess as of now and will need huge refactorings.
The code functions begin with :src and are defined in the chapter about the scripting language.
The eye is our pointer and also interpreter, which points to a certain address in the code. It will "look" at a certain line of code and execute it if instructed to do so. The eye functions begin with :eye and are defined in the chapter about the scripting language. Another thing to keep in mind is, that the :step functions also have to do with the eye.
In this chapter I will document the scripting language that I wrote for this. Is it turing complete? Absolutely not (yet). Is it at least half-way decent? Nope.
The scripting language is kind of inspired by writing bash scripts. Every command that you can write onto the :src you can also execute manually, because the same interpreter is used for the command line and also for the eye.
The documentation about the :src command will teach you on how to actually write code and have it stored. If you want to execute code, you can either write it into the :src and then use the :step command to make the eye execute it, or you can write it into the command line and execute it there.
If you pass this function no parameters it will print the memory up until the address 0x0F.
This function will write the value to the address. The address has to be a u8 number (0-255) and the value has to be a u8 number (0-255). The address will be displayed in HEX, but the user input happens in DEC.
This function will clear the value at the address. The address has to be a u8 number (0-255). The address will be displayed in HEX, but the user input happens in DEC.
If you pass this function no parameters it will print the source up until the address 0x0F.
This function will write the value to the address. The address has to be a u8 number (0-255) and the value has to be a string. That string can be split by as many whitecases as it wants. It will write everything after the address. The address will be displayed in HEX, but the user input happens in DEC.
This function will clear the value at the address. The address has to be a u8 number (0-255). The address will be displayed in HEX, but the user input happens in DEC.
If you pass this function no parameters it will print the current address of the eye.
If you pass this function no parameters it will execute the line of code at the current address of the eye and then step the eye one address down.