BASIC hajp

[kschwab]

Not all that obfuscated, but how could I resist the "Hack another just perler" anagram ?

Runs under both BASIC (tested with yabasic-2.66) and perl. Neither "-w" or "use strict;" is very happy with it though :)

REM ;for(<DATA>){
REM ; chomp;s;\c0\$;\$\c0;;s; ^\d0;;x;
REM ; s;(\w)\w+\$\(;\1\(;x;/(\d+),(\d+)/||{$;=$1,/(\d)/};
REM ; $2?{$==$1-1,$:=$2}:{$:=$1,$==0,$;eq"r"&&{$=-=$:}};
REM ; s;$1,*\d*;$=,$:;;$:&&s;\w\(;substr\(;;eval;}
REM ; print "\n";
REM ;__DATA__
10 p$="hack another just perler"
20 print mid$(p$,14,4);
30 print mid$(p$,5,8);
40 print mid$(p$,18,5)," ";
50 print left$(p$,4);
60 print right$(p$,2)

Update: Based on this reply from BooK, here's something a little closer to a polyglot:

REM ;$_=<<REM;
sub japh()
REM
REM ; $_.="{" . <<'REM ;';
print "Just another Perl hacker\n";
REM ;
REM ;$_.="}";eval;<<'REM';
end sub
REM
japh()

[BooK]

Basically, you wrote it so BASIC_COMMENT is PERL_CODE while BASIC_CODE is PERL_COMMENT... Both parts are distinct: remove the Perl code and the BASIC works pretty well.

This is the first step into polyglots, but don't stop here.

Next, you can try using the variable q$ in BASIC, which will allow you to hide a little BASIC into a Perl quoted-string... Then you begin to intermix the two languages. That is where the real fun part begins.

Until you reach a point where every part of the code is essential. When you're stuck with your code, and it's just... beautyful. Like a work by M. C. Escher.

Of all aspects of writing polyglots, this is the best, ever... (soooorry, couldn't help)

[kschwab]

Well, sort of. The BASIC can stand alone, but the Perl is something of a fragile/one-off/single purpose BASIC interpreter. So, the BASIC works without the Perl, but the Perl doesn't work without the BASIC.

I like the q$ idea...perhaps I can get more than 1/2 a polyglot next time.

Thanks for the feedback...

Update: I added something a bit closer to a polygot on the original node. Thanks BooK !