That was the point of creating it.

Hmph. You're torturing me. I would have thought the binary/ascii example was enough to prove that I'm a person who HAS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

If I were in a professional situation, of COURSE I'd use the tool to get the problem solved as soon as possible and move onto the next thing.

But something like this forum? If a puzzle arises to be solved, I need to nut it out.

How would I figure out what that C code is trying to return? I'd do a hand trace of the code.


Which would be a serious waste of time given that its 1.14pm and I haven't had breakfast yet - no wonder my metabolism is slowly packing it in. I'm outa here.

It was the winner of a contest to write the most obfuscated C code possible. PM me if you want the answer.

What? You mean yoyu dont have a C compiler?

Free C compilers:

http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/cpp.shtml

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

http://www.bloodshed.net/

http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/ The vernerable GNU compiler.

or http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ If you like to do it in DOS

OF COURSE I have a C compiler - I've been using gcc since my early uni days. My point is that *I* would want to do a hand-trace as opposed to plugging it into a computer, compiling the code and then running it... simply for the pleasure of solving the problem...

This is one of the shortcomings of text-only communication. Let me see, how do I describe the question I asked above in terms of where the emphasis on words was in MY mind? Try this -

How would *I* figure out...blah blah...

The emphasis is on the 'I'. Not a general 'how does one figure out...' but more a 'I know what most ppl would do - they'd copy and paste into a file and then compile and run - but thats not what i'd do cos i'm crazy and a nerd and i'd want to hand trace it, for no reason other than its a problem to be solved....'

I'm not sure, am I getting across what I mean? I'm an idiot, an impractical idiot - thats all. :S