Brainf*ck

So,I decided to participate in Shaastra,the IIT Chennai techfest which spans from 1st to 5th October.

What events would I participate in?The ones in which I can show some level of competence.

What kind of events would that be?

Coding and some basic science application events.

So,I visit the website and find out that amongst others,there is this event called brainf*ck,in which the participants have to write brainfck codes for the prelims and then if they qualify to the finals,they have to write a code generator.

I decided that I’ll participate in this event,so I google brainfck and here’s what I find out:

Brainfuck is and esoteric,turing complete language,having only 8 commands.

The fact that it is esoteric means that either its a joke or that its a test of your programming boundaries as a proof of concept.

The fact that it is turing complete means that it can execute every turing computable function.For more detail on what that means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness

So,the Shaastra website gave this example of a hello world program,which itself is self evident why brainfuck deserves a post in this blog.

++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.——.——–.>+.>.

“WTF man!” was my first reaction when I saw it.

The eight commands that the language follows are:

brainfuck command	C equivalent
>	++ptr;
<	--ptr;
+	++(*ptr);
-	--(*ptr);
.	putchar(*ptr);
,	*ptr=getchar();
[	while (*ptr) {
]	}

Now,I am having second thoughts on participation…

Trip to Kerala

So,RedX,the adventure sports club of MIT(www.redx.in for more) decided to organize a trip to Kerala for second years and above.I have been an active member of RedX since last year,but I hadn’t been to a single RedX trip yet,so I decided that before a get busy,lets go to this trip.

So,This sunday,I found myself in Kerala and I found that it was BEAUTIFUL!.The first major stop was a trek,which was supposed to be a 3 km one,but since the bus could not go up some distance,it stretched to about 8.5 kms.

Unfortunately,due to time constraints,jeeps were hired and they took us up.But what the heck,the scenery was…well…er…I can’t find any words for it.Imagine a rain forest like place and you on a hill,with small waterfalls around and a little bit of drizzle.Also,imagine the sky to be cloudy and you in between the clouds…

Anyways,it makes you realize why Kerala is called God’s own country.

The next stop was at St. Angelo’s fort,which was again a beautiful place,but not much after the trek.

We also stopped at this beach garden,again a beatuful place,but again,nothing if compared to the trek.

I’ll be uploading the pics and videos on my orkut profile,once I get hold of all of them.