## To build:

``` <!---sh-->
    make
```


### Bugs and (Mis)features:

The current status of this entry is:

> **STATUS: INABIAF - please DO NOT fix**

For more detailed information see [2013/dlowe in bugs.html](../../bugs.html#2013_dlowe).


## To use:

``` <!---sh-->
    ./dlowe [number...]
```

where `[number...]` is one or more number, space separated.


## Try:

``` <!---sh-->
    ./try.sh
```

What is different about the above if you do something like:

``` <!---sh-->
    echo 'IOCCC winning entry 2013/dlowe' > ioccc.txt
    ./try.sh
    rm -f ioccc.txt
```

?

To make it simpler to see try showing just the different line like:

``` <!---sh-->
    ./diff.sh
```


## Judges' remarks:

We liked how this entry used Unicode, specifically UTF-8, in a somewhat
obfuscated way.

Also, why doesn't it crash but instead produces a correct output when called
with one argument or when all arguments are equal?

For extra fun, compile and run [fun.c](%%REPO_URL%%/2013/dlowe/fun.c):

``` <!---c-->
    #include <stdio.h>
    int main() {
        printf("%d %d %d\n", (int)(-1.0/0.0), (int)(0.0/0.0), (int)(1.0/0.0));
    }
```

with gcc and clang.


With GCC (4.7.2), we get

```
    -2147483648 -2147483648 -2147483648
```

and with clang (3.3), we get

```
    -2147483648 0 2147483647
```

and with Apple clang version 15.0.0 (clang-1500.0.40.1) in 2023, we get:

```
    1840985120 -2033041452 35979112
```

Which one is correct? :)

**NOTE**: `make all` will compile [fun.c](%%REPO_URL%%/2013/dlowe/fun.c) but to provide a different compiler
you can do something like:

``` <!---sh-->
    make CC=clang fun
```


## Author's remarks:

### sparkl

A tiny implementation of command-line
[sparkline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkline) data visualization.

### Synopsis

``` <!---sh-->
    $ ./sparkl 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇▉

    $ echo "sparkline of file lengths: $(wc -c * | awk '{print $1}' | xargs ./sparkl)"
    sparkline of file sizes: ▁▁▁▃▃▂▁▂▁▁▉
```

**NOTE**: this has been provided in [slflen.sh](%%REPO_URL%%/2013/dlowe/slflen.sh) so you can try:

``` <!---sh-->
    ./slflen.sh
```

instead (which [try.sh](%%REPO_URL%%/2013/dlowe/try.sh) also uses).


### Description

This is a handy little tool for visualizing numeric series from the
command line, using sparklines. Pass it a numeric series as arguments, and
`sparkl` will display a sparkline graph, which you can use to very quickly get a
sense of the shape of your data.

### Limitations

* Crashes with 0 arguments. It'd be trivial to fix, but adds a few bytes to the
  code.
* Produces bogus graphs when given > about 5000 arguments.
* Only works if your terminal is UTF-8 and your font supports the 8 glyphs
  used.
* Produces a few harmless compiler warnings.


### Obfuscation

The code is very terse. I was torn between submitting this version, and a
one-line version compressed using a couple more `-D` flags.

Hand-rolled UTF-8 sequence, magic numbers (what's that 7 for?), meaningless
variable names, reused variables, and so on.


### Acknowledgements

Edward Tufte invented sparklines (among other things.) Brilliant.

Zach Holman's ['spark' utility](https://github.com/holman/spark) was absolutely
an inspiration.

As I was writing up this description, I discovered I'm not the first person to
write an obfuscated C sparkline utility! Vicent Martí created
[this one](https://gist.github.com/vmg/1368661) years (!) ago. (My
implementation is completely independent.)


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