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Subject: Re: 8 queens problem meets obfuscated C programming

Author: Albert Bertilsson

Date: 03:20:02 04/10/03

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On April 09, 2003 at 23:56:54, Russell Reagan wrote:

>So...who wants to explain how this works? I don't know how it works, but it
>finds all of the solutions to the 8 queens problem.
>
>#include <stdio.h>
>int v,i,j,k,l,s,a[99];
>void main(void){
>for(s=8;*a-s;v=a[j*=v]-a[i],k=i<s,j+=(v=j<s&&(!k&&!!printf(2+"\n\n%c"-(!l<<!j),"
>#Q"[l^v?(l^j)&1:2])&&++l||a[i]<s&&v&&v-i+j&&v+i-j))&&!(l%=s),v||(i==j?a[i+=k]=0:++a[i])>=s*k&&++a[--i]);
> printf("\n\n");
>}
Sorry about the empty post...

Hmm... someone with top notch C knowledge obviously wrote this...
Some notes though:
With the VC 7 kompiler the board is printed in the wrong way, the Queen
positions are marked with spaces, and white squares are marked with 'Q'.

There are some strange stuff in the code like:
... &&(!k&&!!printf(2+"\n ...
Two following !!, I don't see the point of that.
... &&(!k&&printf(2+"\n ...
Gives the same result when I compile it.

It was quite easy to simplify the code by breaking it att each ',' sign. But
still some lines are very long and no line except for the main and the printf
makes any sense to me.

I doubt that the author could really understad this himself without really
spending some hours analyzing it.

It is still an amazing example of what computers can do with a small set of
instructions, and a good example of how C-code can be messed up!

/Regards Albert



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