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Comment by tromp

15 hours ago

A maze generator in the shape of a maze whose corridors spell a 4-letter word:

    char*M,A,Z,E=40,J[40],T[40];main(C){for(*J=A=scanf(M="%d",&C);
    --            E;             J[              E]             =T
    [E   ]=  E)   printf("._");  for(;(A-=Z=!Z)  ||  (printf("\n|"
    )    ,   A    =              39              ,C             --
    )    ;   Z    ||    printf   (M   ))M[Z]=Z[A-(E   =A[J-Z])&&!C
    &    A   ==             T[                                  A]
    |6<<27<rand()||!C&!Z?J[T[E]=T[A]]=E,J[T[A]=A-Z]=A,"_.":" |"];}

Generates a maze on the fly after entering the desired height of the maze. This compiled fine back in 1988 when I submitted it to the IOCCC (having rediscovered Eller's algorithm). Modern C compilers don't allow constant strings to be overwritten, which can be avoided by changing the first line to

    char M[3],A,Z,E=40,J[40],T[40];main(C){for(*J=A=scanf("%d",&C);

The code is explained in detail at https://tromp.github.io/maze.html

3 comments

tromp

Reply
munificent  11 hours ago

Neat!

Related: Here's a C program that draws random dungeons sort of like you use in a roguelike dungeon crawler:

    #include <time.h> //  Robert Nystrom
    #include <stdio.h> // @munificentbob
    #include <stdlib.h> //     for Ginny
    #define  r return    //    2008-2019
    #define  l(a, b, c, d) for (i y=a;y\
    <b; y++) for (int x = c; x < d; x++)
    typedef int i;const i H=40;const i W
    =80;i m[40][80];i g(i x){r rand()%x;
    }void cave(i s){i w=g(10)+5;i h=g(6)
    +3;i t=g(W-w-2)+1;i u=g(H-h-2)+1;l(u
    -1,u+h+2,t-1            ,t+w+2)if(m[
    y][x]=='.'                  )r;i d=0
    ;i e,f        ;if(!s){l(      u-1,u+
    h+2,t-    1,t+w+2){i s=x<t     ||x>t
    +w;i    t=y<u||           y>    u+h;
    if(s    ^t&&              m[      y]
    [x    ]=='#'    ){d++;    if(g    (d
    )     ==0)    e=x,f=y;    }}if    (d
    ==    0)r;    }l(u-1,u    +h+2    ,t
    -1    ,t+w    +2){i s=    x< t    ||
    x>    t+w;    i t= y<u    ||y>    u+
    h;    m[y]      [x]= s    &&t?   '!'
    :s^t    ?'#'                    :'.'
    ;}if    (d>0)m                  [f][
    e]=g(2    )?'\'':'+';for(i j=0;j<(s?
    1:g(6)        +1);j++)m[g(h)+u][g(w)
    +t]=s?'@'                 :g(4) ==0?
    '$':65+g(62)              ;}i main(i
    argc, const char* argv[]) {srand((i)
    time(NULL));l(0, H, 0,W)m[y][x]=' ';
    for(i j=0;j<1000;j++)cave(j==0);l(0,
    H,0,W) {i c=m[y][x]; putchar(c=='!'?
    '#':c);if(x==W-1)printf("\n");}r 0;}

binaryturtle  15 hours ago

If I squeeze the eyes I can read the "MAZE". :)

Sadly neither version works here with an older clang on OS X. Both variants build fine with 9 warnings each. But the old variant dies with a "Bus Error: 10", and the new variant with "Segmentation fault: 11". Same with gcc (albeit only 8 warnings.)

/edit

OK, just wrong user input. You gotta feed it a number, and not a "foobar" or another random string.