ioccc/1988/litmaath

To build:

    make

To use:

    ./litmaath some text

There is an alternate version provided. See the Alternate code section below.

Try:

    ./litmaath eschew obfuscation

Alternate code:

This alternate code, added to help understand the entry and for fun, is code that we suggested at the time of the entry publication but which we never put in a file.

Alternate build:

    make alt

Use litmaath.alt as you would litmaath above.

Alternate try:

    ./litmaath.alt six was afraid of seven because seven eight nine

Judges' remarks:

Note the unusual structure:

    while (<condition>)
         ;

Did you notice that the body is empty?

Furthermore, it's interesting to note that only two variables are used to achieve everything.

The best one can do to understand how the program works is to give it two small strings as arguments, and follow the program closely. One could make the body of the while loop an fprintf with interesting variables like:

    fprintf(stderr,
         "argv=%lo *argv=%lo **argv=%c argv[1]=%lo *argv[1]=%c argc=%d\n",
         (long) argv, (long) *argv, *argv && **argv ? **argv : '@',
         (long) argv[1], argv[1] && *argv[1] ? *argv[1] : '@', argc);

... which is what the alternate code is.

Author's remarks:

No remarks were provided by the author.