Ivory is a Turing-complete, esoteric programming language (esolang) and Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compiler suite. Originally conceived as a romantic gesture for Valentine's Day 2026, Ivory reimagines the classic tape-memory computational model by introducing a hybrid Tape/Stack architecture, temporal constraints, and hardware entropy through a lexicon of devotion.
Programs in Ivory are designed to read like stream-of-consciousness prose or avant-garde poetry. Unlike traditional languages that prioritize brevity and execution speed, Ivory enforces the "Whisper Constraint", which is a hardcoded 50ms thread delay on standard output to ensure a deliberate, human pace for every character printed to the terminal.
Ivory uses a Single-pass Ahead-of-Time (AOT) Transpiler architecture.
- Frontend: The
ivoryccompiler lexes.ivysource files. Unrecognized tokens are intentionally ignored, allowing natural-language comments to be included directly within the logical flow. - Intermediate Representation (IR): Ivory code is transpiled into a temporary C++ representation of a 64-bit Hybrid Virtual Machine. To achieve a mathematically Turing-complete, bi-directionally infinite memory tape, the VM utilizes a Sparse Memory Architecture (an O(1) dynamically allocated Hash Map), paired with an infinitely expanding LIFO stack.
- Backend: The compiler forks a system process, invoking the local GCC toolchain (
g++) to perform high-level optimizations (-O3) and link the IR into a standalone, native machine-code binary (ELF for Linux, PE for Windows).
Ivory extends standard Trivial Brainfuck Substitution (TBS) by implementing 19 distinct opcodes, organized into logical sub-systems:
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
adore |
+ |
Increment the value at the current memory cell. |
miss |
- |
Decrement the value at the current memory cell. |
hold |
> |
Move the data pointer one cell to the right. |
release |
< |
Move the data pointer one cell to the left. |
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
whisper |
. |
Output current cell's ASCII value (enforces 50ms thread delay). |
listen |
, |
Accept a single character of input into the current cell. |
promise |
[ |
Begin a loop (Jump forward if the cell value is 0). |
always |
] |
End a loop (Jump back if the cell value is non-zero). |
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
cherish |
push() |
Push the value of the current tape cell onto the memory stack. |
reminisce |
pop() |
Pop the top value from the stack and overwrite the current tape cell. |
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
breathe |
sleep() |
Suspend host thread execution for exactly 1000ms. |
clear |
\033[2J |
Clear the terminal screen using ANSI escape sequences. |
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
passion |
+= 10 |
Add 10 to the current memory cell (Bulk Arithmetic). |
heartbreak |
-= 10 |
Subtract 10 from the current memory cell (Bulk Arithmetic). |
forget |
= 0 |
Instantly zero out the current memory cell (State Reset). |
confess |
print(val) |
Output the raw 64-bit integer value of the current cell for debugging. |
| Keyword | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
destiny |
p = tape[p] |
Absolute pointer dereferencing (teleports pointer to address). |
wonder |
rng() |
Hardware entropy injection (assigns a random 64-bit integer using Mersenne Twister). |
fade |
exit(0) |
Graceful process termination / hardware interrupt. |
Below is a standard "Hello, World!" program.
passion passion passion passion passion passion passion
adore adore whisper passion passion adore adore adore
adore adore adore adore adore adore whisper adore
adore adore adore adore adore adore whisper whisper
adore adore adore whisper forget passion passion passion
passion adore adore adore adore whisper heartbreak miss
miss whisper passion passion passion passion passion adore
adore adore adore adore whisper passion passion adore
adore adore adore whisper adore adore adore whisper
miss miss miss miss miss miss whisper miss
miss miss miss miss miss miss miss whisper
forget passion passion passion adore adore adore whisper
fade
While Ivory can be used for simple text generation, its 64-bit hybrid architecture allows for highly complex logic and hardware interaction.
The Cat program is the universal I/O test for esoteric languages. It continuously reads a single character from standard input and echoes it to standard output. In Ivory, the hardcoded 50ms whisper delay turns any user input into a slow, deliberate echo.
listen
promise
whisper
listen
always
fade
This program calculates and prints the first 50 numbers of the Fibonacci sequence. It utilizes the confess opcode to natively print the 64-bit integers and the breathe opcode to introduce a deliberate one-second pause between calculations.
clear
passion passion passion passion passion
hold forget
hold forget adore
hold forget
release release release
promise
hold confess
breathe
promise
miss
hold hold adore
release release
always
hold
promise
miss
release adore
hold hold adore
release
always
hold
promise
miss
release adore
hold
always
release release release
miss
always
fade
- A C++ compiler (GCC/MinGW recommended) installed in your system PATH.
Clone the repository and compile the Ivory compiler suite:
g++ -O3 ivoryc.cpp -o ivorycTo compile an Ivory source file into a native executable:
# Explicit output name
./ivoryc script.ivy love_letter.exe
# Defaulting to a.out (Linux) or a.exe (Windows)
./ivoryc script.ivyThe repository includes poem.ivy, a source file initially generated via a Python-based ASCII-offset calculator and heavily augmented with Ivory's temporal opcodes (breathe, clear). When compiled and executed, it outputs a multi-line message dynamically, demonstrating the language's capacity for complex string manipulation, thread blocking, and memory-tape arithmetic.
Author: Kavindu Widyarathne.
Dedicated to: My beautiful girlfriend.
Date: February 14, 2026.