code in the ruins

When I read about INSERT COIN, the Perl script that changes the ready messages on HP network printers, I was overjoyed. It seems to be a perfect way to wreak mild havoc without really harming anything. I showed it to my buddy John this morning; it's right up his alley, too (for an idea of what John's alley is like, check this out).

Of course, he's a Windows guy (although not a Windows 95 guy). And INSERT COIN is a Perl script, and he doesn't have ActivePerl installed, because when you have cmd, you have everything you need!

So I decided to get him a standalone version of INSERT COIN that will run on his box. I decided to try to port the thing to D. Mainly because I have a short attention span, and I recently read an article about D.

I'm a scripting guy, only recently having delved into statically-typed-but-still-use-a-runtime languages like Java and C#, and hardly at all into lower levels of programming. C and C++ scare me a bit, frankly, but D seems a little more accessible. And by accessible, I mean that it seems like it would be harder to make a total ass of yourself as a newbie. Image is everything.

So I ported INSERT COIN to D. And I have to say it was a very enjoyable experience. Here's the source and the Windows binary (compiled with MinGW). Now John can happily tweak the printers anytime he likes.