Draft:A family of 5 stuck in a perpetual time loop of agony

A family of 5 stuck in a perpetual time loop of agony is a stack-based esoteric programming language made by User:Dragoneater67 in 2026. It was inspired by But Is It Art?.

Syntax

The source is a 2d grid of symbols. For each unique symbol, find the rectangle that contains the largest contiguous shape that only consists of the symbol, then define it as a subprogram. For example, the program:

AAAAAAA
ABCCCCA
ABBBBCA
AAAAAAA

defines 3 subprograms: Subprogram A

AAAAAAA
ABCCCCA
ABBBBCA
AAAAAAA

Subprogram B

BCCC
BBBB

Subprogram C

CCCC
BBBC

Execution

The program executes subprograms in order from biggest to smallest in an implicit infinite loop. To execute a subprogram is to replace the first appearance of each symbol (in order from biggest to smallest) with its corresponding subprogram. For example:

Subprogram A

AAB
BAA

Subprogram B

ABB
BBA

Execute subprogram A

AAB
BAAAB
  BAA

AAABB
  BBA
BAAAB
  BAA

Execute subprogram B

AAABB
  BBA
BAAAB
  BAABB
    BBA

AAAAAABB  B
     BBA
   BAAAB
     BAABB
       BBA
  B       BA
BAA       AB
  B       AABB
           BBA

Examples

Looping counter

AA