abs is the absolute value from 0. so if you have a positive number then it will stay the same, but if you have a negative number it will be turned to a positive number
0 abs = 0
x abs = 1
-x abs = 1
usually it is used for conditionless bots.
do you ever read the definitions and examples? the db code isn't messy, you just don't know everything that you should to be able to read it properly. that takes time but you have to read and test yourself a bit. why do you think i take so long on some things you give me, to give you time to come up with something yourself. it took me over a month of reading and testing to finally get it all, but i didn't give up on trying to understand.
And most of the things I try a lot on, especially before asking, it makes sense now the Abs, but elsewhere its been explained in ways, among other things in DB code, which make it seem messy. Plus, even messy code you can eventually understand, some of the biggest programming languages have inefficiencies and parts which are messy, take JAVA for example, when you run a program, it'll tell you that you have an error, but unlike python and such won't tell you where the error is. With java, good lord, everythings forced to be so long and thousands and thousands of lines of code are needed for simple programs, 1 error, not a clue where it is, not a clue what the error is. A mere inefficiency. The more efficient, and easy DB code is, the better for new people coming on. Plus, if the programming is easy then it could help people that don't know much about DNA and such understand it more, as even though its not perfect to real life, its probably one of the best, if not the best open source, free simulators out there. Then to top it off, the more simplistic the code for darwinbots the better, as DNA is made up of 4 bases, its that simple, of course we couldn't right in that easily (unless your steven hawkins maybe?) so it needs to be abbreviated into common, or relatively quick to work out, and well explained abbreviations, and commands. These commands then need multiple assets able to be given to them, thus when combined with other commands or operators, and intergers it can perform an almost endless array of tasks.
I mean, even numsigl has said that some bits of the code for DB2 is messy, and thats why he doesn't want to work on it, and instead wants to work on DB3. Both DNA side, and console side.
A FINAL POINT: Numsigl, considering your now hired by google, couldn't you get their interest in DB3 by stating that its an educational platform which can also help train skills, as it helps people understand programming more (Especially assembly language programming as DB2 is currently quite close to) and helps people understand biology, cellular life, the challenges of cellular life, methods that can be used by cellular life, the functions they can perform & how DNA works. then you could do multiple things, like you could get a small (very small :3) chunk of the google servers to run IM or such off (and because its google, they could solve port issues and such :3) and you could grab a few google nerds to help you on this (some other people at google must be interested).