OceanScript Esoteric Language

Overview

OceanScript is an Esoteric language used to encode and decode text into a formulation of characters - where the final result looks like waves in the ocean.

Unlike it's prior versions, OceanScript supports any character, as well as capitalization. Your encoded string should be decoded to look exactly the same as the encoded string. Note, however, that outlying whitespace characters are stripped from the edges of the text.

How does it work?

OceanScript isn't just random choice or a random jumble of characters. These characters have very specific meanings, which once understood, can be used to write oceanscript without the use of the encoder. Take a look at these 4 tables below:

When typing a character, you need to check the following in order:

• What row is my character in? (The rows are denoted by the following characters: ^, ~, _.)
• What column is my character in? (The columns are denoted by the following indicators: <, -, >.)
• What box is my character in? (The boxes are denoted by ., multipled by n, where n is the box number. There are 4 boxes.)

Our final product will be known as a "wave". It will contain from 3 to 6 characters. Have a look at some examples below to understand how to write these waves.

Exemplar a

Here is an example of typing the character a. It is the easiest character to type from memory, and is great to use as a first example. Lets zoom in on a's box below:

Using the table above, the character a is in the top row of it's box, so our first character is ^. Next, you need to check the column. a is also in the first column, so our second character is < (pointing to the left). Finally, we need to check which box character a is in. We will add . according to the table above. The number of dots corresponds to the box number (1-4).

a in oceanscript is ^<..

Exemplar x

Here is an example of typing the character x. Lets zoom in on x's box below:

Using the table above, the character x is in the second row of it's box, so our first character is ~. Next, you need to check the column. x is in the right-hand column, so our second character is > (pointing to the right). Finally, we need to check which box character x is in. We will add ..., because this is box 3 of 4.

x in oceanscript is ~>....

Joining waves

Wave is the name used for a single encoded character (z -> _-...). Waves can be freely joined together. Remember that every character ends with ., so you can easily work out where each wave ends.

• hello -> _-.~-.^>..^>..~>..
• foobar -> ~>.~>..~>..^-.^<._>..

Joining tides

Tide is the name used for a collection of "waves", so essentially a word converted into oceanscript. For example, _-.~-.^>..^>..~>.. is a tide, meaning "hello". Tides can be joined using either commas, or line breaks. For pretty formatting, or if you have a lot of text, you should use line breaks - but otherwise go with commas.

• hello foobar -> _-.~-.^>..^>..~>..,~>.~>..~>..^-.^<._>.. (notice the comma separating these two waves)

OR...

• hello foobar ->

  _-.~-.^>..^>..~>..

  ~>.~>..~>..^-.^<._>..

Special characters

Don't fear, oceanscript isn't just limited to a-z and 0-9. Well, it used to be - but a new special character indicator has been added to support any other character.

It is best to keep these special characters out of the ocean, so these characters will need to use a raft (=). Simply put the raft before the character. If you wanted to write the Greek lambda character (λ), it will need a raft seeing as its not in the large table, so it would simply be written as =λ. More common characters (., !, ?) are more likely to appear, they will need rafts too.

• ? -> =?
• ^ -> =^
• ... -> =.=.=.

Despite not appearing in the table, capitalized a-z characters DO NOT need to use rafts. See below about capitalization.

Capitalization

Capitalization hadn't been supported for months proceeding the initial release of oceanscript, but its now available. To make a character capital, use a splash (*) before the wave.

• a -> ^<.
• A -> *<.

For each capital wave you have, you will have to add a splash before each one. Yes, these waves are choppy...

• hello -> _-.~-.^>..^>..~>..
• HELLO -> *_-.*~-.*^>..*^>..*~>..

Note that you should not use splashes for numeric characters, or any characters that are not alphabetic. This is because these characters do not have case forms (and therefore don't produce splashes! You could call them subtle waves...)

Line breaks

For line breaks in oceanscript, use %. For example, presenting an acronym:

N
A
S
A

In oceanscript, the above acronym would be encoded into *~-..%*^<.%*^<...%*^<..

All identifiers

Terminology glossary

Python Implementation

As a programmer, I just had to make a Python library for this. Once upon a time, it was all just a looming thought in my mind with so much potential. Its been great to be able to create a working usable program for it, for anyone to use and play around with.

Start by importing the module:

import oceanscript

Encoding into oceanscript

Use the oceanscript.encode method. This method also takes an optional keyword-only argument "mode", which decides whether the encoder uses commas or line breaks to replace spaces. Specify stretch for line breaks, or squash for commas. Defaults to squash.

>>> oceanscript.encode("hello")
'_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..'

>>> oceanscript.encode("Hello world!")
'*_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..,~-...~>.._>..^>..~<.=!'

>>> oceanscript.encode("Hello world!", mode="stretch")
'*_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..'
'~-...~>.._>..^>..~<.=!'

Decoding from oceanscript

Use the oceanscript.decode method. Both modes from the encode method are compatible with decoding (you don't have to specify a mode here).

>>> oceanscript.decode("_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..")
'hello'

>>> oceanscript.decode("*_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..,~-...~>.._>..^>..~<.=!")
'Hello world!'

>>> text = """
    *_-.~-.^>..^>..~>..
    ~-...~>.._>..^>..~<.=!
    """
>>> oceanscript.decode(text)
'Hello world!'

If the oceanscript doesn't look quite right, the parser won't like it. oceanscript.OceanScriptError is thrown, but the traceback details are fairly useful for correcting these mistakes.

OceanScriptError has a position attribute, which is the string index in where the exception was raised (at the start of the wave).

>>> oceanscript.decode("*>....") # capitalizing int
OceanScriptError: Splash indicator not allowed for integers (position 0)

>>> oceanscript.decode("=a") # rafting ascii value
OceanScriptError: Do not use lowercase ascii letters or digits on a raft ('=a'). Use '^<.' instead. (position 0)

>>> oceanscript.decode("^-.~>..#>..") # invalid row indicator '#'
OceanScriptError: '#' is not a valid row indicator (position 7)

>>> oceanscript.decode("^+...") # invalid column indicator '+'
OceanScriptError: '^' indicator expected '<', '-', or '>', but received '+' instead (position 0)

Other tracebacks can appear, too.

Installation

Install from the recommended package installer, pip.

pip install oceanscript

License

Licensed under MIT.