Folders.py
Folders is an esoteric programming language, created by Daniel Temkin in 2015, which encodes the program entirely into the directory structure.
All names of the folders as well as their contents are completely ignored. Instead, the commands are encoded in the nesting of folders within folders.
Let me say that again: THE SOURCE CODE IS THE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE. Lol.
This is a Python implementation of Folders for all to enjoy!
Folders is (was originally) implemented in C#.
Usage
Install from pip
Simply install the Folders command line interpreter
pip install Folders
Give the folder of the program you wish to run as an command line argument
Folders sample_programs/HelloWorld
# => Hello, World!
If instead you would like list the Python code to stdout, use the -l option
Folders -l sample_programs/HelloWorld
# => print("Hello, World!", end='', flush=True)
Run python
The implementation is just the python file, folders.py and has no dependencies, so if you'd like you can clone the repo and run python ./folders/folders.py instead of pip installing and use it the same as in the examples above.
Language details
The language details are on the esolangs wiki, but I've put it here for reference.
For example, take a look at the Fibonacci sample program.
The root folder contains a list of command folders - in this case labelled Nf1.., Nf2.., but the names don't actually matter except the alphabetical ordering - the first folder (which I've labelled with an init) is the first "sub-folder", the next is the second, etc.
Commands:
Commands take the following form
| Command | # of folders | Details |
|---|---|---|
| if | 0 folders | Second sub-folder holds expression, third holds list of commands |
| while | 1 folder | Second sub-folder holds expression, third holds list of commands |
| declare | 2 folders | Second sub-folder holds type, third holds var name (in number of folders, ex. zero folders becomes "var_0") |
| let | 3 folders | Second sub-folder hold variable name (in number of folders), third holds an expression |
| 4 folders | Second sub-folder holds expression | |
| input | 5 folders | Second sub-folder holds variable name |
Expressions:
Expression folders take the following form:
| Type | # of folders | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | 0 folders | Second sub-folder holds variable name |
| Add | 1 folder | Second sub-folder holds the first expression to add, third holds second expression |
| Subtract | 2 folders | Second sub-folder holds the first expression to subtract, third holds second expression |
| Multiply | 3 folders | Second sub-folder holds the first expression to multiply, third holds second expression |
| Divide | 4 folders | Second sub-folder holds the first expression to divide, third holds second expression |
| Literal Value | 5 folders | Second sub-folder holds the type of the value (as described by types below, ex. two folders for a string) |
| Equal To | 6 folders | Second and third folders hold expressions to compare |
| Greater Than | 7 folders | Second and third folders hold expressions to compare (takes the form : second folder > third folder) |
Types
And finally type folders take the following form:
| Type | # of folders |
|---|---|
| int | 0 folders |
| float | 1 folder |
| string | 2 folders |
| char | 3 folders |
Note on this implemementation
The int, float, and char types are 8-bit only. But, you can add into their variables to arbitrary length, so to get a very large number you can simply multiply it a bunch of times.
This is what the fibonacci program does.
The absolute power of folders
Behold, the mighty Truth Machine program:
A mighty meme-worthy point
All Folders programs are 0 bytes if you're on windows as it interprets an empty folder as 0 bytes.
The ultimate code golf!
307 Jan 7, 2023
2 Nov 21, 2021
1 Jan 18, 2022
5 Oct 9, 2021
3 Jun 15, 2022
7 Mar 12, 2022
6 Jun 25, 2022
185 Dec 26, 2022
5 May 08, 2022
2 Mar 27, 2022
1 Jan 26, 2022
1 Nov 26, 2021
1 Jun 14, 2022
2 Nov 12, 2021
2 Jul 31, 2022
4 Nov 14, 2022
50 Jan 06, 2023
50 Dec 22, 2022
2 Feb 15, 2022
2 Feb 07, 2021
3 May 06, 2022
2 Nov 28, 2022
3 Feb 02, 2022
2 Nov 21, 2022
1 Jan 28, 2022
2 Sep 30, 2022
2 Jan 22, 2022