No, that's unreadable code and therefore not idiomatic. The typical way to generate large numbers is to use multiplication. `"Hello, World!"` translates to ASCII values < 72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 87, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33 > … which can be thought of as 10 * < 7, 10, 11, 11, 11, 4, 3, 9, 11, 11, 11, 10, 3 > + < 2, 1, -2, -2, 1, 4, 2, -3, 1, 4, -2, 0, 3 > The code should therefore be written that way. The consecutive elevens can lead to a compression optimization. +++++ +++++ [- > +++++ ++ > +++++ +++++ > +++++ +++++ + > ++++ > +++ > +++++ ++++ > +++++ +++++ + > +++++ +++++ > +++ <<<<< <<<< ] Print: > ++ . "H" > + . "e" > -- .. +++ . "llo" > ++++ . comma > ++ . space > --- . "W" > + . +++ . ----- - . "orl" > . "d" > +++ . "!" For readability, you should also group the increment and decrement operators in fives. I also find your comments unnecessarily verbose. This solution uses one more memory cell than the original code. It's well worth it for the readability, in my opinion.