Fascinating. I wonder whether there’s an obfuscatory DSL lurking in there somewhere.

Now that is clever.

There’s also a lot of fun to be had with instance variables

party@myhouse

Haha, what a great surprise to check my RSS reader and discover my name’s on the venerable _why’s blog. Thanks for the plug!

While at it, I’d like to encourage everyone in the Dallas area to get in touch with me about my seminar for more information. My email’s admin[at]Jicksta.com. It’s going to be awesome.

Keep up the great work _why. You’re our Ruby Rockstar. :)

But why does ?? eval to 63 ?

and ?! => 33

Because

irb(main):003:0> 63.chr
=> "?" 
irb(main):006:0> ?!.chr
=> "!"

Same reason ?a => 97. To wit.

? is Ruby shorthand for referencing a character.

irb(main):020:0> ?a => 97 irb(main):021:0> ?a == “a”[0] => true

Since ?? equals 63, it is equivalent to true in a boolean test. That means we can negate it with a bang!

irb(main):014:0> ?? => 63 irb(main):015:0> !?? => false irb(main):016:0> !!?? => true

and so on. As always, be responsible ;)

eval("?\\#{??.to_s(8)}").chr

This might be a good ruby quiz idea: Generate a given number is the fewest symbols possible.

!!??  !!!??
true  false

Quick, count the bangs: is this true or false?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??

Nick: False!

Nick: False. 41 !s.

Goo! Dear gods of lingo and logic, let us not stray the path to perl-dom…

Ive been using this for ages, check http://www.eachmapinject.com/book/chapters/misc.rb

@mixonic: Too late! We already have the Obfuscated Ruby Contest.

http://iorcc.blogspot.com/

that took some time to understand… parentheses help.

?{*?{%?{-?{**?{+?{||?{|?{&?{&&
?}|?}**?}-?}%?}&&?}+?}*?}||?}&
?[&?[||?[|?[-?[%?[&&?[**?[+?[*
?]|?]*?]&&?]||?]**?]%?]-?]&?]+
?;&?;-?;%?;+?;*?;||?;**?;&&?;|
?:*?:&&?:&?:||?:**?:+?:|?:%?:-
?'-?'&&?'+?'|?'||?'%?'&?'*?'**
?"%?"+?"&?"*?"-?"||?"**?"&&?"|
?/||?/|?/&?/-?/+?/&&?/*?/**?/%
??-??&??&&??||??%??|??*??**??+
?.*?.&?.%?.-?.+?.|?.&&?.||?.**
?,&&?,-?,||?,%?,**?,+?,|?,&?,*
?<-?<+?<&&?<%?<||?<|?<&?<*?<**
?>**?>+?>|?>%?>||?>*?>&&?>-?>&
?=**?=|?=*?=&&?=%?=+?=-?=||?=&
?-&&?-&?-+?--?-%?-|?-**?-||?-*
?+*?+%?+||?+|?+&&?+-?++?+**?+&
?_|?_+?_%?_&&?_||?_&?_*?_-?_**
?)%?)*?)&?)&&?)-?)|?)||?)+?)**
?(%?(+?(-?(**?(*?(|?(&&?(||?(&
?*&&?*+?*-?**?***?*|?*%?*||?*&
?&|?&-?&&?&&&?&%?&||?&+?&**?&*
?^%?^&?^||?^*?^+?^-?^&&?^**?^|
?%*?%+?%**?%||?%%?%&?%-?%&&?%|
?$%?$|?$*?$-?$**?$&&?$&?$||?$+
?#&&?#**?#*?#+?#-?#&?#||?#%?#|
?@+?@%?@&&?@&?@|?@-?@*?@**?@||
?!&&?!||?!&?!**?!*?!%?!|?!+?!-
?~|?~&&?~&?~-?~||?~**?~%?~+?~*
?`&?`||?`**?`*?`%?`&&?`|?`+?`-
?||?|+?|-?|**?|||?|&?|%?|*?|&&
??
=> -114374367934617190099880295228066276746218078451850229775887975052369504785666896446606568365201542169649974727730628842345343196581134895919942820874449837212099476648958359023796078549041949007807220625356526926729664064846685758382803707100766740220839144

YaY! I’ll never miss Perl again!

Someone mind putting some parenthesis on this so that a code newbie can understand? At least I think wazup? is a boolean returning function, but have no idea for the rest of it, unless all that banging is negations… wazup?!!??1