Just another Perl hacker

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Just another Perl hacker, or JAPH, typically refers to a Perl program that prints "Just another Perl hacker," (the comma is canonical but is occasionally omitted). Short JAPH programs are often used as signatures in online forums, or as T-shirt designs. The phrase or acronym is also occasionally used (without code) for a signature.

Contents

JAPH programs are classically done using extremely obfuscated methods, in the spirit of the Obfuscated C Contest. More recently, as the phenomenon has become well-known, the phrase is sometimes used in ordinary examples (without obfuscation).

The idea of using tiny Perl programs that print a signature as a signature was originated by Randal L. Schwartz, in his postings to the newsgroup comp.lang.perl. [1] He wrote many of the JAPHs which are shown below.

Examples

JAPH program without obfuscation:

print"Just another Perl hacker,";

Embedding JAPH in opaque code:

$_='987;s/^(\d+)/$1-1/e;$1?eval:print"Just another Perl hacker,"';eval;

Decoding JAPH from a transposed string literal:

$_="krJhruaesrltre c a cnP,ohet";$_.=$1,print$2whiles/(..)(.)//;

Printing out JAPH as separate processes:

for$i(0..4){if(!fork){$i==0ornot{$SIG{INT}=sub{print"J"}}or$i==1ornot{$SIG{INT}=sub{print"A"}}or$i==2ornot{$SIG{INT}=sub{print"P"}}or$i==3ornot{$SIG{INT}=sub{print"H"}};sleep$i;last;}}killINT=>$$;

Appearing as if it does something completely unrelated to printing JAPH:

$_="wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgc";tr/a-z/oh,turtleneckPhraseJar!/;print;

Forking processes to print out one letter each in the correct order: [2] 

@P=split//,".URRUU\c8R";@d=split//,"\nrekcah xinU / lreP rehtona tsuJ";subp{@p{"r$p","u$p"}=(P,P);pipe"r$p","u$p";++$p;($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;map{$P=$P[$f^ord($p{$_})&6];$p{$_}=/ ^$P/ix?$P:close$_}keys%p}p;p;p;p;p;map{$p{$_}=~/^[P.]/&&close$_}%p;waituntil$?;map{/^r/&&<$_>}%p;$_=$d[$q];sleeprand(2)if/\S/;print

Using only Perl keywords (no punctuation): [3] 

notexplogsrandxorsqqqxxorsxxlengthucordandprintchrordforqwqjoinusesubtiedqxxorevalxorprintqqqqxorintevallcqmcosandprintchrordforqwyabsneopentiedhexexprefymxorscalarsrandprintqqqqxorintevallcqqysqrtcosandprintchrordforqwxprintfeachreturnlocalxyorprintqqssandevalqsundeforoctxortimexorrefprintchrintordlcforeachqwyhexalarmchdirkillexecreturnysgtsinsortsplit

Using only punctuation, no alphanumeric characters. This breaks after Perl 5.30.0, as using $# and $* create fatal errors. This JAPH was written by Eric Roode and only works on Unix and Unix-like systems:

`$=`;$_=\%!;($_)=/(.)/;$==++$|;($.,$/,$,,$\,$",$;,$^,$#,$~,$*,$:,@%)=($!=~/(.)(.).(.)(.)(.)(.)..(.)(.)(.)..(.)......(.)/,$"),$=++;$.++;$.++;$_++;$_++;($_,$\,$,)=($~.$"."$;$/$%[$?]$_$\$,$:$%[$?]",$"&$~,$#,);$,++;$,++;$^|=$";`$_$\$,$/$:$;$~$*$%[$?]$.$~$*${#}$%[$?]$;$\$"$^$~$*.>&$=`

A much shorter one, using only punctuation, based on the EyeDrops module:

''=~('(?{'.('-)@.)@_*([]@!@/)(@)@-@),@(@@+@)'^'][)@]`}`]()`@.@]@%[`}%[@`@!#@%[').',"})')

ASCII art (to make this dromedary-shaped code work, the console size needs to be set to at least 119×48): [4] 

#subj(\$){($P,$V)=@_;while($$P=~s:^([()])::x){$V+=('('eq$1)?-32:31}$V+=ord(substr($$P,0,1,""))-74}suba{my($I,$K,$J,$L)=@_;$I=int($I*$M/$Z);$K=int($K*$M/$Z);$J=int($J*$M             /$Z);$L=int($L*$M/$Z);$G=$J-$I;$F=$L-$K;$E=(abs($G)>=abs($F))?$G:$F;($E<0)and($I,$K)=($J,$L);$E||=.01;for($i=0;$i<=abs$E;$i++){$D->{$K+int($i*$F/$E)      }->{$I+int($i*$G/$E)}=1}}subp{$D={};$Z=$z||.01;map{$H=$_;$I=$N=j$H;$K=$O=j$H;while($H){$q=ordsubstr($H,0,1,"");if(42==$q){$J=j$H;$L=j$H}else{$q-=43;$L=$q%9;$J=($q-$L)/9;$L=$q-9*$J-4;$J-=4}$J+=$I;$L+=$K;a($I,$K,$J,$L);($I,$K)=($J,$L)}a($I,$K,$N,$O)}@_;my$T;map{$y=$_;map{$T.=$D->{$y}->{$_}?$\:' '}(-59..59);$T.="\n"}(-23..23);print"\e[H$T"}$w=eval{requireWin32::Console::ANSI};$b=$w?'1;7;':"";($j,$u,$s,$t,$a,$n,$o,$h,$c,$k,$p,$e,$r,$l,$C)=split/}/,'Tw*JSK8IAg*PJ[*J@wR}*JR]*QJ[*J'.'BA*JQK8I*JC}KUz]BAIJT]*QJ[R?-R[e]\RI'.'}Tn*JQ]wRAI*JDnR8QAU}wT8KT'.']n*JEI*EJR*QJ]*JR*DJ@IQ[}*JSe*JD[n]*JPe*'.'JBI/KI}T8@?PcdnfgVCBRcP'.'?ABKV]]}*JWe*JD[n]*JPe*JC?8B*JE};Vq*OJQ/IP['.'wQ}*JWeOe{n*EERk8;'.'J*JC}/U*OJd[OI@*BJ*JXn*J>w]U}CWq*OJc8KJ?O[e]U/T*QJP?}*JSe*JCnTe'.'QIAKJR}*JV]wRAI*J?}T]*RJcJI[\]3;U]Uq*PM[wV]W]WCT*DM*SJ'.'ZP[Z'.'PZa[\]UKVgogK9K*QJ[\]n[RI@*EH@IddR[Q[]T]T]T3o[dk*JE'.'[Z\U'.'{T]*JPKTKK]*OJ[QIO[PIQIO[[gUKU\k*JE+J+J5R5AI*EJ00'.'BCB*'.'DMKKJIR[Q+*EJ0*EK';subh{$\=qw(% & @ x)[intrand4];map{printf"\e[$b;%dm",int(rand6)+101-60*($w||0);system("cls")if$w;($A,$S)=($_[1],$_[0]);($M,@,)=split'}';for($z=256;$z>0;$z-=$S){$S*=$A;p@,}sleep$_[2];while($_[3]&&($z+=$S)<=256){p@,}}(""."32}7D$j"."}AG"."$u}OG"."$s}WG"."$t",""."24}("."IJ$a"."}1G$n"."}CO$o"."}GG$t"."}QC"."$h}"."^G$e"."})IG"."$r","32}?"."H$p}FG$e}QG$r"."}ZC"."$l","28}(LC"."".""."$h}:"."J$a}EG"."$c"."}M"."C$k}ZG"."$e"."}"."dG$r","18"."}("."D;"."$C")}{h(16,1,1,0);h(8,.98,0,0);h(16,1,1,1);h(8.0,0.98,0,1);redo}####written                                 060204 by#liverpole                                  @@@@@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@

See also

References

  1. ↑ Randal L. Schwartz in Usenet message M1HFPVH2JQ.FSF@HALFDOME.HOLDIT.COM explaining the origin of JAPH. Available through Google.com
  2. ↑ Plover.com
  3. ↑ Originally posted at perlmonks.org by user blokhead
  4. ↑ Originally posted at perlmonks.org by user liverpole.

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