Obfuscated Perl

[apomb]

Fascinates the pants off me.

I always wondered how anyone could be so proficient at Unix/Perl that they could write something like this:

Perl:

/;{}def/#{def}def/$_={/Times-Bold exch selectfont}#/_{rmoveto}#/"{dup}#/*/!/$ ;/q{exch}#/x ; {/J q #}#/.{/T q #}#{stringwidth}#{}#{}# 14 string dup dup dup 260 40 moveto 90 rotate ; %/}};$0='"\e[7m \e[0m"';@ARGV=split//,reverse q(ThePerl). q(Journal) x 220 ; q ; 0 T putinterval exch 7 J putinterval ;  ; $_= q /m$ pop T($*!$"=!$ " )pop " * true% ? $ " $!" "  !!  !! % !" !"    ! ! charpath {!"""}pop $ pop{""!}pop ! neg{!#}pop 220 ! neg _{!!}pop J false %T charpath  clip " pop 0 " moveto 6{!!}pop $_= 105{!!}pop {$ ! $ " !  #! ##} pop{dup dup $ ! " pop pop q{"}pop 22{dup show}repeat {"}pop q 22 mul{$ "} pop neg{!#! $ "}pop ! 8 .65 mul{$ # # $}pop ! neg{"}pop  _ pop{"}pop } repeat pop " {  $ " ! ! ! $ " ! !" "#"  #"!"""""! #" " # "m/;@ARGV=(@ARGV[-14..-1])x50;q}  0 "%};s/m[ou]|[-\dA-ln-z.\n_{}]|\$_=//gx;s/(.)(?{$*=''})/('$*.='.(++$# %2?'':"$0;").'pop;')x(ord($1)-31).'$*'/gee;s/((.(\e\[.m)*|.){77})/$1\n/g;print ; sub showpage {}

and the output be:

code:

ThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerl J     l hePerlJou     hePerlJourn  ThePe   ournalThePerlJournalThePerlJou  al The erl ournalTheP rlJ urnalThePer Journa ThePerlJournalThePerlJournalTheP rl Jou nal hePer  our alT e  rl o  na ThePer Jo   a  heP r J  rn l  ePe   our al The erl   rn lT eP    o rn l  eP r Journa T ePe l our a  he e  Jo rnalT eP rl Jou nal he e    ur alTh    l ourna Th Per J urn l heP r Journ lTh Pe    ur al The erl ou n lTheP rlJo rnal hePer Jo rna T ePe l our a ThePe lJo rn lT eP rl Jou nal he er   u   lThe   l ourn   he   lJo   alT   er Jour   T   e    u   l ThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerlJournalThePerl

Protip: Highlight the code part and squint or, if you run any type of unix (mac included) just copy the code as obfuscated.pl and run it at your command line

[rdrake]

I could write Hello World in Perl and it'd still look obfuscated .

Seriously though, I really love the camel:

Perl:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w                                      # camel code use strict;                                            $_='ev                                        al("seek\040D            ATA,0,                  0;");foreach(1..3)        {<DATA>;}my               @camel1hump;my$camel;   my$Camel  ;while(             <DATA>){$_=sprintf("%-6 9s",$_);my@dromedary           1=split(//);if(defined($ _=<DATA>)){@camel1hum        p=split(//);}while(@dromeda  ry1){my$camel1hump=0      ;my$CAMEL=3;if(defined($_=shif         t(@dromedary1    ))&&/\S/){$camel1hump+=1<<$CAMEL;}        $CAMEL--;if(d   efined($_=shift(@dromedary1))&&/\S/){       $camel1hump+=1  <<$CAMEL;}$CAMEL--;if(defined($_=shift(      @camel1hump))&&/\S/){$camel1hump+=1<<$CAMEL;}$CAMEL--;if(      defined($_=shift(@camel1hump))&&/\S/){$camel1hump+=1<<$CAME      L;;}$camel.=(split(//,"\040..m`{/J\047\134}L^7FX"))[$camel1h       ump];}$camel.="\n";}@camel1hump=split(/\n/,$camel);foreach(@       camel1hump){chomp;$Camel=$_;y/LJF7\173\175`\047/\061\062\063\       064\065\066\067\070/;y/12345678/JL7F\175\173\047`/;$_=reverse;        print"$_\040$Camel\n";}foreach(@camel1hump){chomp;$Camel=$_;y         /LJF7\173\175`\047/12345678/;y/12345678/JL7F\175\173\0 47`/;          $_=reverse;print"\040$_$Camel\n";}';;s/\s*//g;;eval;   eval            ("seek\040DATA,0,0;");undef$/;$_=<DATA>;s/\s*//g;(   );;s              ;^.*_;;;map{eval"print\"$_\"";}/.{4}/g; __DATA__   \124                \1   50\145\040\165\163\145\040\157\1 46\040\1  41\0                     40\143\141  \155\145\1 54\040\1   51\155\  141                     \147\145\0  40\151\156 \040\141    \163\16 3\                      157\143\   151\141\16  4\151\1     57\156                      \040\167  \151\164\1   50\040\      120\1                      45\162\   154\040\15    1\163\      040\14                      1\040\1   64\162\1      41\144       \145\                      155\14    1\162\       153\04        0\157                       \146\     040\11     7\047\         122\1                       45\15      1\154\1  54\171          \040                       \046\         012\101\16            3\16                       3\15           7\143\15             1\14                       1\16            4\145\163           \054                      \040            \111\156\14         3\056                     \040\         125\163\145\14         4\040\                     167\1        51\164\1  50\0         40\160\                   145\162                              \155\151                 \163\163                                \151\1               57\156\056

It's so obfuscated it appears to break the syntax highlighting.

Edit: It outputs this over and over again:

code:

.mJXXLm                  mJXXLm.                        .mJXXL       .JXXXXXXXXL                JXXXXXXXXL.       JXXLm.     mXXXXmXXXL     .XXXXXXXXXXX}              {XXXXXXXXXXX.     JXXXmXXXXm  7XXXXXXXXX}  .JXXXXXXXXXXXXX.            .XXXXXXXXXXXXXL.  {XXXXXXXXXF     .XXXXXX'.JXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL          JXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL.`XXXXXX.       .XXXXXXXmXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL        JXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXmXXXXXXX.     {XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.    .XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX}      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  .XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX        7XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXF         7XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXF`XX  XX'7XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXF          `7XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX7XXX} XX  XX {XXXFXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXF'              `' XXXXX^XXXXX7XXXF`XXX}{X'  `X}{XXX'7XXXFXXXXX^XXXXX `'                   7XXXF XXXXX`XXX} `XXX`'    `'XXX' {XXX'XXXXX 7XXXF                     {XXX'{XXXX} 7XX}  {XX.      .XX}  {XXF {XXXX}`XXX}                     {XXF {XXF'  JXX'   XX}      {XX   `XXL  `7XX} 7XX}                      XX}  7XXm JXX'    XX'      `XX    `XXL mXXF  {XX                        XX'    7XXXF      XX        XX      7XXXF    `XX                       .XF     .XXXXL    .XX        XX.    JXXXX.     7X.                     XX}   .XXXF7XF    JXX}      {XXL    7XF7XXX.   {XX                   mXXX'              `XXX'      `XXX'              `XXXm                ^^^^^                                              ^^^^^

[rizzix]

It's very easy to obfuscate code. It's much harder to decrypt obfuscated code.

[Prabhakar Ragde]

It's very easy to write obfuscated Perl. It's much harder to write clear Perl. --PR

[wtd]

I find it rather easy to write clear Perl, actually. It's just a matter of actually knowing the language and understanding its idioms.

[michaelp]

I'm wondering how that can even be code.
I was thinking about using Perl as a new language to learn, but then I decided to learn Python instead.

[apomb]

I, too am enjoying writing clear perl programs, this diversion into obfuscation is just entertainment.

I'm finally seeing the power of simplicity.

[wtd]

The biggest "wow!" when I first learned Perl all those years ago was probably having powerful data structures (arrays, hashes) at my disposal, and having them very easily accessible.

Not to say this is exclusively a Perl advantage, but it still gets it more right than a lot of other, more popular languages.

Oh, and once you "get" how the Perl type system works, it's a lot easier to understand the whole thing.

[apomb]

I find Ruby and perl similar in that regard, wtd, since ive gotten equally into both languages.

[wtd]

I thought you would. It really is one of their great strengths, especially as it helps with keeping the library simple.