Subj : Re: Syntax, style, the infinite monkey theorum and coding
To   : comp.programming
From : Rob Thorpe
Date : Mon Aug 22 2005 03:49 am

gswork@mailcity.com wrote:
> Rob Thorpe wrote:
> > gswork@mailcity.com wrote:
> []
> > > 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!
> >
> > The message cracker macros look a bit this way:
> > http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~squire/download/WindowsX.h
>
> This one has a kind of rythm to it, something un-random.   Lovely use
> of CAPITALS though.

The casts are really nice.
For instance the three consecutive casts will do exactly the right
thing on every Windows. E.g.:-
#define FORWARD_WM_CTLCOLORSCROLLBAR(hwnd, hdc, hwndChild, fn) \
    (HBRUSH)(UINT)(DWORD)(fn)((hwnd), WM_CTLCOLORSCROLLBAR,
(WPARAM)(HDC)(hdc), (LPARAM)(HWND)(hwndChild))
The really interesting bit is why.

> > So does anything written in TECO.
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_Editor_and_Corrector
>
> That's a wonder to behold
>
>  qz"g 0uz @o/START/ '
>
> Little code gets more 'thousand monkeys' than this!

I believe it was a ritual amongst users of TECO to type in their name
as a command to see what it does.  Any string is a set of TECO commands
that will do something, even if it's something strange.

.