Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Tim Rentsch Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Sort of trivial code challenge - may be interesting to you anyway Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 06:27:18 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 63 Message-ID: <86h5qma43t.fsf@linuxsc.com> References: <10n80sc$3soe4$1@dont-email.me> <86v7feei2e.fsf@linuxsc.com> <10o53k6$1i0ef$2@dont-email.me> <86ms0peby6.fsf@linuxsc.com> <10ockdh$3qpk6$1@dont-email.me> <10ocrjn$3qpk6$2@dont-email.me> <10od64s$3qpk6$4@dont-email.me> <86ikb9bmtw.fsf@linuxsc.com> <10oem5t$n5hk$1@dont-email.me> <86o6kz9zng.fsf@linuxsc.com> <10oi72k$1rss6$1@dont-email.me> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:27:24 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="5f44bcdbc02769ce6998caa4a4cb2206"; logging-data="1172321"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/KFqCRQr7VwYhZP8+znUYEqlEU68HVuns=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:xfJt6DvzqVXjmGYaDzDqKR5Ccf0= sha1:VlcuRwjBPiv5wnV0DTJrATBclAI= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:396900 DFS writes: [some of posting being responded to has been taken out without further notice]. > On 3/7/2026 3:02 PM, Tim Rentsch wrote: > >> Lew Pitcher writes: >> >>> [...] I look forward to seeing /your/ code :-) >> >> Here we go... > > OMG! Congrats on an innovative piece of C code. Never seen > anything like it. Thank you, that's always nice to hear. > I don't understand everything yet, but nested ternaries aside, it's > pretty easy to follow too. Once you get used to them I think you'll find conditional expressions are easier to follow than if() chains. > A nit you may have forgotten: you earlier said main() was not > allowed: No, I didn't. You asked "Is main() OK?". I replied "Yes" followed by a short elaboration. Having main() be present is okay; calling it is not. The oversight was not mentioning that main is allowed. > Also I have a 'challenge' to add to your program - that I already > added to mine - to make it even more compelling: > > * when looking for a square matrix, instead of printing 'no joy' > print out a matrix that will visually demonstrate why the number > doesn't fit in a square matrix. > > For instance: > > ./rc-dfs 17 > square matrix for 1-17 not possible > -------------------- > 1 2 3 4 5 > -------------------- > 1 6 11 16 > 2 7 12 17 > 3 8 13 > 4 9 14 > 5 10 15 > > If you get stuck, I'll give you a hint :) A straightforward exercise. A challenge for you is to start with my program and adapt it, writing in the same style, to add this functionality. Now that you have seen my example code I think you should be able to adapt it without too much difficulty. > What do you think would be the reaction in a corporate programming > dept to this unique kind of code? What characteristics or properties would you say are the salient ones for the question you're asking?