Subj : Re: Syntax, style, the infinite monkey theorum and coding
To   : comp.programming
From : Ed Prochak
Date : Fri Aug 19 2005 11:49 am


gsw...@mailcity.com wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
> contains a high quality entry on the theorum
[]
> then pointing out that infinity isn't required (it would actually
> guarantee an infite amount of copies of all texts)
>
> "a thousand monkeys typing random letters at 100 characters per minute
> would very likely type the word "banana" within 6 weeks."
>
> what they didn't mention was that, intriguingly, it only takes few
> monkeys feverishly hitting the keyboard and making generous but
> unpredictable use of the shift key to immediately start producing
> functioning perl code!
>
> erm... only joking.
>
> okay, so i can't follow perl code - some times it just looks like so
> much:
> hjgf$~@//\4-abc/\%$@
> in fact that snippet might be really useful to someone!
>
> Any favourite code snippets you've seen that have that 'many monkeys'
> appearance?  I don't mean deliberate obfuscation, but some working code
> you've seen.

Sadly I have.

>
> Code snippets with that 'monkeys' feel are kind of like modern art -
> you're aware that it's supposed to mean something and that it may well
> be very clever, but you can't help feeling that a 3 year old, or indeed
> a money, would happily and readily, but unintentially, hammer out the
> exact same!

how about a C program with a seven page while() loop where the
condition on the while() loop was seven full lines long (where full
means about 70characters per line, not counting whitespace)? Sorry I
don't have the code available. That was at a job nearly twenty years
ago. It was written by a contractor that the company respected and was
considered a great programmer. Needless to say I did not share that
opinion when I was assigned to maintain and debug this beast.

.