Manufactoria (the language)

I’ve been playing a game recently called Manufactoria (AKA Finite Automata: The Game) (Spoilers ahead). It’s complicated enough that I created a DSL to represent it, and a Komodo Edit plugin to provide syntax highlighting, indentation, and code folding. Why a separate language, you ask? Because the puzzle is really 3 parts:

  1. Find the right algorithm
  2. Implement the algorithm
  3. Make it fit on the stupid board

The game gets challenging enough that solving 2 and 3 simultaneously is more than I care to think about sometimes. To put it another way, would you rather generate the diagram below from nothing or from the code provided?[1]
ophanim

If you also enjoy tormenting your brain, you can find the game here and the Komodo plugin on github. Happy brain exploding :)



[1]The code and pictured machine take in two numbers (with blue being 1 and red being 0) separated by a green, and puts something in the yellow box if and only if the first number is greater than the second (Numbers are Big Endian and must be read left to right). If the picture isn’t intimidating enough, play a few levels and you’ll appreciate the pain.

About Bion

I'm a software developer at Modo Payments, a mobile payment provider. When I'm not hacking away the office, you I'm usually at home hacking on something else. Or practicing Aikido. Anyway, I just post things here that Google couldn't help me with, so maybe it'll help you in the future. Since you're reading this, I guess it worked :)
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