Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!torn!utnut!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!uunet!telesoft!kst
From: kst@telesoft.com (Keith Thompson @pulsar)
Subject: APL one-liner needed for new novel
Message-ID: <1993Mar12.113416.16509@telesoft.com>
Keywords: fantasy
Organization: Alsys Group, San Diego, CA, USA
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 11:34:16 GMT
Lines: 33

I'm posting this request on behalf of Rick Cook, a science fiction and
fantasy author.  You can send any responses directly to him at
rcook@bix.com.  I'll forward anything mailed to me or posted to this
newsgroup (I *think* we should be receiving it here).

A little background: Rick Cook is the author of a series of novels
about a C programmer who finds himself transported into a fantasy
world, and proceeds to devise a programming language, operating system,
and support tools to cast magical spells.  To create or edit a spell,
for example, one summons a demon called an Emac.

>         OK APLers, the deal is this. I'm working on the next Wiz
> book (the fourth) and I need a line of APL code. What I am
> looking for is the most georgeously complicated, totally bizarre
> no-op I can find. It can be any dialect or version (although I'd
> like to know what the dialect or version is so I can work it into
> the story) but it should be mind-bendingly cryptic.
>         If you want to call it an obfuscated APL competition,
> fine, but it's got to fit on one line -- about 80 characters
> or less  -- and it's got to _appear_ complicated to people
> who think APL is a mis-spelled fruit.
>         The winner gets mentioned in the dedication to the
> book, "The Wizardry Consulted", which will come out next year
> from Baen Books.
>         (Why a line of APL code? Well, there's this dragon, you
> see, and he likes to play with his food. Fortunately he prefers
> word games, so. . .)
> --Rick Cook
-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith)  kst@telesoft.com
TeleSoft^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Alsys, Inc.
5959 Cornerstone Court West, San Diego, CA, USA, 92121-9891
"Listen to me, people!  We must stick them with quills -- it's the only way!"
