Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
Show HN: Database Queries from Brainfuck (github.com)
2 points by tradrich 100 days ago
Experiment: interacting with SQLite databases from Brainfuck, without modifying SQLite or writing C helpers.

The idea is to see how far a deliberately minimal language can be pushed using only core Linux primitives (pipes, dd, file operations) and direct interaction with SQLite database files.

Brainfuck was chosen because it is intentionally extreme. Even compiling the generated code turned into an adventure: the Brainfuck compiler emits C, and the output was so large that gcc couldn't compile it, though clang could.

This is the sort of project no sane developer would normally attempt. With AI assistance, however, it became feasible to explore in part of a Saturday.
1 comments
tradrich 100 days ago
The goal isn't to build a practical SQLite interface in Brainfuck.

It's more of a systems experiment: how far can an extremely minimal language be pushed when you combine it with the primitives available in a Unix-like OS.

Brainfuck makes the constraints very obvious. Once the language gets out of the way, the interesting part becomes the surrounding system: pipes, files, and formats like SQLite's B-tree structure.

link