Editing Befunge (section)

== History ==
The language was originally created by Chris Pressey<ref>{{cite web |url=http://esolangs.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Pressey&oldid=13199 |title=Chris Pressey |date=2008-12-18 |website=Esolang |author=Ais523 |access-date=2014-01-23}}</ref> in 1993 for the [[Amiga]], as an attempt to devise a language which is as hard to [[compile]] as possible. Note that the <code>p</code> command allows for [[self-modifying code]]. Nevertheless, a number of compilers have subsequently been written. A number of extensions to the original "Befunge-93" specification also exist, most notably Funge-98, which extends the concept to an arbitrary number of dimensions and can be [[Multithreading (computer architecture)|multithreaded]], with multiple [[instruction pointer]]s operating simultaneously on the same space. Befunge-extensions and variants are called ''Fungeoids'' or just ''Funges''.

The Befunge-93 specification restricts each valid program to a grid of 80 instructions horizontally by 25 instructions vertically. Program execution which exceeds these limits [[integer overflow|"wraps around"]] to a corresponding point on the other side of the grid; a Befunge program is in this manner [[Topology|topologically]] equivalent to a [[torus]]. Since a Befunge-93 program can only have a single stack and its storage array is bounded, the Befunge-93 language is not [[Turing-complete]] (however, it has been shown that Befunge-93 is Turing Complete with unbounded stack word size).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://esolangs.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Befunge&oldid=38327 |title=Talk:Befunge |website=Esolang |date=2014-01-18 |author=Oerjan |access-date=2014-01-23}}</ref> The later Funge-98 specification provides Turing completeness by removing the size restrictions on the program; rather than wrapping around at a fixed limit, the movement of a Funge-98 instruction pointer follows a model dubbed "Lahey-space" after its originator, Chris Lahey. In this model, the grid behaves like a torus of finite size with respect to wrapping, while still allowing itself to be extended indefinitely.