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0 Ypsilax
1 =======
2
3 Language version 1.1, distribution revision 2014.0525
4
5 Overview
6 --------
7
8 **Ypsilax** is a minimal, non-deterministic, reflective, two-dimensional
9 grid-rewriting language. Ypsilax is a descendent of Zirgulax, which was
10 an earlier but similar idea which used a hexnet instead of a grid.
11
12 An Ypsilax source file is One Big Playfield. This playfield is not
13 semantically symmetrical; things closer to the 'top' of the playfield
14 have a higher 'precendence' than the things close to the 'bottom'. (I
15 experimented with colours and boundaries, and found having a 'sloping'
16 playfield was much easier to implement.)
17
18 [Implementation note. The source for the reference implementation is
19 only about 5K of Perl code, and much of that is taken up by the
20 license!]
21
22 A rewriting rule in Ypsilax looks like this:
23
24 ( )
25 AB
26
27 Rules are always twice as wide as they are high. This particular rule,
28 which is two cells wide by one cell high, says that it is OK to replace
29 any A found below this rule with a B.
30
31 Ypsilax is totally non-determinstic, like [Thue][]. Each reduction
32 consists of picking a rule by an unspecified method — for all you know,
33 it is selected completely at random — and attempting to apply it to some
34 part of the playfield below the rule, again chosen by means unknown.
35 When this suceeds, that part of the playfield is rewritten.
36
37 [Thue]: http://catseye.tc/node/Thue/
38
39 [Implementation note: in fact, the reference implementation does indeed
40 select rules and places to apply them using Perl's pseudo-random number
41 generator. Also, the interpreter dumps an image of the playfield to
42 `stdout` whenever a rewrite occurs, for some jolly good entertainment,
43 but this is not specified as part of the language semantics proper.]
44
45 Ypsilax is reflective. This means that you can write rules which rewrite
46 other rules. For example, you could write the following rule above the
47 previously noted rule, which would rewrite it:
48
49 ( )
50 ( )( )
51 AB CD
52
53 Note that this rule is, in fact, four cells high, as it is eight cells
54 across.
55
56 However, there is nothing stopping these 'embedded' rules from also
57 being randomly picked and applied by some rule that may occur above
58 them. To get around that we can 'escape' the
59 rules-to-be-matched-instead-of-obeyed:
60
61 (\ \ )
62 ( )( )
63 AB CD
64
65 The backslashes do not affect the semantics of the parentheses as
66 'define rule'; however they do prevent rewrites on the cells immediately
67 below them.
68
69 Finally, Ypsilax just wouldn't be a proper constraint-based language
70 without some form of pattern-matching. (*In 1.1: Updated to agree with
71 existing implementation and examples*) The wildcard character in any
72 given rule is whatever character appears just to the left of the `)`
73 that delimits that rule on the right, as long as that character is not
74 blank space. Whereever this character appears in the left-hand side of
75 the rule (the pattern,) it will match any character during a rewrite,
76 not just another of its own kind. Whereever this character appears in
77 the right-hand side of the rule (the substitution,) it will not replace
78 the corresponding character in the playfield when a substitution is
79 made. That character in the playfield will remain unchanged.
80
81 License
82 -------
83
84 Copyright ©2001-2014, Chris Pressey, Cat's Eye Technologies.
85 All rights reserved.
86
87 Distributed under a BSD-style license; see `LICENSE` for more information.
0 Ypsilax
1 =======
2
3 Language version 1.1, distribution revision 2014.0525
4
5 Overview
6 --------
7
8 **Ypsilax** is a minimal, non-deterministic, reflective, two-dimensional
9 grid-rewriting language. Ypsilax is a descendent of Zirgulax, which was
10 an earlier but similar idea which used a hexnet instead of a grid.
11
12 An Ypsilax source file is One Big Playfield. This playfield is not
13 semantically symmetrical; things closer to the 'top' of the playfield
14 have a higher 'precendence' than the things close to the 'bottom'. (I
15 experimented with colours and boundaries, and found having a 'sloping'
16 playfield was much easier to implement.)
17
18 [Implementation note. The source for the reference implementation is
19 only about 5K of Perl code, and much of that is taken up by the
20 license!]
21
22 A rewriting rule in Ypsilax looks like this:
23
24 ( )
25 AB
26
27 Rules are always twice as wide as they are high. This particular rule,
28 which is two cells wide by one cell high, says that it is OK to replace
29 any A found below this rule with a B.
30
31 Ypsilax is totally non-determinstic, like [Thue][]. Each reduction
32 consists of picking a rule by an unspecified method — for all you know,
33 it is selected completely at random — and attempting to apply it to some
34 part of the playfield below the rule, again chosen by means unknown.
35 When this suceeds, that part of the playfield is rewritten.
36
37 [Thue]: http://catseye.tc/node/Thue
38
39 [Implementation note: in fact, the reference implementation does indeed
40 select rules and places to apply them using Perl's pseudo-random number
41 generator. Also, the interpreter dumps an image of the playfield to
42 `stdout` whenever a rewrite occurs, for some jolly good entertainment,
43 but this is not specified as part of the language semantics proper.]
44
45 Ypsilax is reflective. This means that you can write rules which rewrite
46 other rules. For example, you could write the following rule above the
47 previously noted rule, which would rewrite it:
48
49 ( )
50 ( )( )
51 AB CD
52
53 Note that this rule is, in fact, four cells high, as it is eight cells
54 across.
55
56 However, there is nothing stopping these 'embedded' rules from also
57 being randomly picked and applied by some rule that may occur above
58 them. To get around that we can 'escape' the
59 rules-to-be-matched-instead-of-obeyed:
60
61 (\ \ )
62 ( )( )
63 AB CD
64
65 The backslashes do not affect the semantics of the parentheses as
66 'define rule'; however they do prevent rewrites on the cells immediately
67 below them.
68
69 Finally, Ypsilax just wouldn't be a proper constraint-based language
70 without some form of pattern-matching. (*In 1.1: Updated to agree with
71 existing implementation and examples*) The wildcard character in any
72 given rule is whatever character appears just to the left of the `)`
73 that delimits that rule on the right, as long as that character is not
74 blank space. Whereever this character appears in the left-hand side of
75 the rule (the pattern,) it will match any character during a rewrite,
76 not just another of its own kind. Whereever this character appears in
77 the right-hand side of the rule (the substitution,) it will not replace
78 the corresponding character in the playfield when a substitution is
79 made. That character in the playfield will remain unchanged.
80
81 License
82 -------
83
84 Copyright ©2001-2014, Chris Pressey, Cat's Eye Technologies.
85 All rights reserved.
86
87 Distributed under a BSD-style license; see `LICENSE` for more information.⏎