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I recently created a simple little language that transpiles Brainfuck into a format that is half the size of its input. It can be used to compress and decompress Brainfuck programs.

Provided I include a link to the transpiler, am I allowed to use this transpiler language as a submission, or is this against the rules?

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    \$\begingroup\$ hint: Is Typescript allowed? Why or why not? \$\endgroup\$
    – John Dvorak
    Dec 7, 2019 at 22:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ Probably okay given that Pyth is allowed. \$\endgroup\$
    – user85052
    Dec 8, 2019 at 1:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why wouldn't they be? As an aside though, it doesn't really matter how long the brainfuck code is, as code-golf questions are between languages. Honestly, you'll probably get less votes if you compress it into a shorter language anyway, and there's already dozens of brainfuck derivatives floating around \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King Mod
    Dec 8, 2019 at 5:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ With a bit more work, you can probably achieve a 3/8 compression ratio, since brainfuck uses 2^3 characters out of 2^8 available. \$\endgroup\$
    – isaacg
    Dec 8, 2019 at 20:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ @isaacg Would probably be possible. My compressor for now is limited to the ASCII range but if I go outside ASCII smaller compression will be possible. \$\endgroup\$
    – moltarze
    Dec 8, 2019 at 21:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you looking for CompressedFuck? \$\endgroup\$
    – the default.
    Dec 9, 2019 at 14:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ I mean technically, doesn't everything transpile to machine code anyway? \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King Mod
    Dec 12, 2019 at 5:47

1 Answer 1

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Yes you can - you do however have to make sure that it is clear what transpiler you used as well as the interpreter/compiler of the language you transpile into you use.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I have to say I think this should be conditional: you should only be allowed to use a transpiler if the transpiler is Turing-Complete within the restrictions of the language or something like that. I'm new so IDK how formal we want to be, but I feel a simple "single character creates entire program" transpiler would be abused. Maybe only transpilers existing before the question was created are allowed? @flawr \$\endgroup\$
    – mackycheese21
    Dec 11, 2019 at 2:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ @mackycheese21 The same question arose with the golfing languages people created. For some time we had the rule that the language (which we say is specified by a specific interpreter) must have existed before the corresponding challenge was posted. But then we moved away from this rule and these kind of boring solutions that you mentioned never actually became a problem, so you rarely find anyone even trying it, and if so, they usually don't get a lot of attention. \$\endgroup\$
    – flawr
    Dec 11, 2019 at 10:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ Relevant links: codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12877/… codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7560/… codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1061/… codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9/… \$\endgroup\$
    – flawr
    Dec 11, 2019 at 10:16

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