Okay, two questions: first, why does ${chr(23)} evaluate to 1 and second, how in the name of all that is sane did you discover this gem of trivia?

for(unpack("C*",'GGGG?GGGG?O__\?WccW?{GCw?Wcc{?Wcc~?Wcc{?~cc'
.'W?')){$j=$_-63;++$a;for$p(0..7){$h[$p][$a]=$j%2;$j/=2}}for$
p(0..7){for$a(1..45){$_=($h[$p-1][$a])?'#':' ';print}print$/}
[download]

${chr(23)} = $^W. Same as $foo = ${foo}.

90% of every Perl application is already written. ⇒

dragonchild

D'oh. I theoretically should have known that, I just forgot about the way unix handles bucky bits. (I come from the DOS world, where holding Ctrl causes the Ctrl bit to be set in the KSB, and pressing W causes the character W to be sent on hardware interrupt 9, and it is also possible to type in character 23 (Alt+023 on the keypad), which is different and will usually have a different effect. I've been using Linux for a while now, but I haven't done any lowlevel assembly-language stuff, so I only occasionally brush into this, and it hasn't firmly taken root in my brain yet.)

---

for(unpack("C*",'GGGG?GGGG?O__\?WccW?{GCw?Wcc{?Wcc~?Wcc{?~cc'
.'W?')){$j=$_-63;++$a;for$p(0..7){$h[$p][$a]=$j%2;$j/=2}}for$
p(0..7){for$a(1..45){$_=($h[$p-1][$a])?'#':' ';print}print$/}
[download]

No results? What gives? ;-P

Bravo.

perl -MO=Deparse
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;sub t{map{chr($_)}@_}sub l{return(split' ',&s)[0=>1]}
BEGIN{$%=2=>$;[0]=23=>$;[1]=$;[0]++=>$;[2]=3;@;=&t(@;)=>$^H^=$%}
$.=-${$;[1]}=>$!=$:=~s/\s//g=>$!++=>$?=$=/$!*($%+$!)=>$=/=$!;$~=
substr((split/[\/\\]/=>${$;[0]})[$.]=>$[=>$?)=>@~=split//,$~;$^=
qq#h$~[${$;[1]}]$~[$!]$~[$|]#=>@~=qx/$~$"$:$:$^/=>$~=$~[$=]=>$^=
substr($~=>index($~=>$:)+${$;[1]}=>${$;[1]});$@=::j();$b='_';*$b
=sub{$~=shift;$~->($b,@_);};goto&{$@->$^};sub s{unpack($^,$@->_)
};sub j{$a={_=>'92G5S="!!;F]T:&5R(%!E<FP@2&%C:V5R"@``',};$;=sub{
$:=shift;$a->{$:};};bless($;);$;;}sub u{die(&i);}sub v{(split' '
=>&s)[2=>3]}sub i{join' '=>(&l=>join(''=>&t(@{&e}))=>&v=>$/)}sub
e{[69,118,105,108]};sub p{'Just'}sub r{'Hacker'}sub o{'Another'}
^D
Can't call method "PADLIST" on an undefined value at /usr/bin/perl/lib
+/B/Deparse.pm line 1039.
CHECK failed--call queue aborted.
[download]

Huh? B::Deparse works here... (Version 0.60, perl 5.6.1, FreeBSD).

B::Deparse works for me on my linux system but not my windows systems.
Mr. Muskrat shrugs...

Added: Yes, 5.6.1 on Windows.

I'm usually not overly excited by obfuscation, yet I read this thread and liked it.

I'll upvote this not because I'm impressed by the obfu (haven't dissected it), but because the English surrounding it was pleasant to read. OK. Perhaps I got a bit disappointed when a piece of obfu was presented as the finale, but I still like to encourage well-written and enjoyable presentations.

Keep up the good work,
ihb

Perhaps I got a bit disappointed when a piece of obfu was presented as the finale
I'm sorry to let you down but it was my evil post. ;-)

I worked on this post for a very long time (probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 to 24 hours over a period of about two weeks).

It started out as a simple idea. As the obfuscation evolved, so too did my ideas for the surrounding text. I am quite sure that if I had went ahead with my original idea for the text, it would have received some very snide replies.

Perhaps I'll even post my first draft of the obfuscation just so you all can have a good laugh at my expense.

I don't know, but I am more impressed with obfuscations which actually run on a variety of valid installations. I'm not trying to be snide, but I think there's a fine line between the use of obscure language constructs, and the (ab)use of accidental implementation issues.

I couldn't run this on Windows (ActiveState 5.6.0), nor on Solaris (5.005_03). Since there's no indication of what version of perl this expects, I'll try it on a Linux 5.8.0 when I get home. Maybe someone else can post a spoiler?

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

I haven't used AS 5.6.0 in quite some time, and it's been even longer since I've used 5.005.

I apologize for not specifying that this will probably only work on 5.6.1 or greater.

The code is pretty bad but the text that I was going to use was even worse!

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
goto the_end;
print "Wakka wakka wakka!\n";
the_middle: goto somewhere_else;
$_='\x045\x067\x088\x069';
spaghetti: goto cheese;
print eval($_);
burger: goto with_fries;
print "can't catch me!\n";
$!=3;
covered_in_gravy: goto and_salt;
do_not: goto go;
print "Collect $200!";
stop: goto circles;
squares: $_="Just Another Perl Hacker\n";
my $japh=die($_);
goto &$japh;
circles: goto squares;
$_="He's evil I tell you!";
go: goto stop;
$^=5;
and_salt: goto do_not;
print "Evil is afoot!\n";
dump;
with_fries: goto covered_in_gravy;
$"=',';
cheese: goto burger;
@_=qw(who is your daddy?);
somewhere_else: goto spaghetti;
print "Booyah!\n";
the_end: goto the_middle;
[download]

Goto undefined subroutine &main::1 at (file name here) line 8.
[download]

I must say that you have me stumped with that error. How'd you save the code? What OS is this on? What version of Perl?

This is Win2k Perl5.8.0 using cygwin.

But then again, it is only Windows x-)
janx

Don't read if you want to figure this out for yourself!

Thanks for the report. When I posted my last "bugfix", I inadvertantly changed one single character and that one character makes a big difference in the outcome.