Redcode: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:42, 21 April 2010

Revision as of 11:46, 5 June 2010

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''This article is about the abstract programming language. For the video codec used in the [[Red Digital Cinema Camera Company#Compression_and_workflow|RED ONE]] camera, see [[REDCODE]].''

'''Redcode''' is the name of the [[programming language]] used in the game [[Core War]]. It is executed by a [[virtual machine]] known as a ''Memory Array Redcode Simulator'', or ''MARS''. The design of Redcode is loosely based on actual [[Complex instruction set computer|CISC]] [[assembly language]]s of the early 1980s era, but contains several features not usually found in actual computer systems.

== Key Language Featuresfeatures ==

;No numeric instruction values: The Redcode standard leaves the underlying representation of instruction codes undefined, and provides no means for programs to directly access it. Arithmetic operations may only be done on the two address fields contained in each instruction. The only operations supported on the instruction codes themselves are copying and comparison for equality.

;No absolute addressing: All addresses are interpreted as offsets relative to the instruction containing them. Since the address space wraps around, it is in fact impossible for a Redcode program to determine its absolute address.

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== Earliest versions ==

The earliest published description of Redcode is found in the [http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/DOCS/guide2red.txt ''Core War Guidelines''] published in March 1984 by [[A. K. Dewdney]] and [[D. G. Jones]]. The language as described here differs significantly from the later variants, being in many ways closer to actual assembly languages of the era.