Welcome to the First Annual Swaine's Flames Brain Games. The Games consist of a number of Events, each with its own rules: the Acronym Event, the Anagram Event, the Palindrome Event, and a Bonus Question thrown in as a last hope for those who can't figure out any of the other Events. Read the rules, tackle the Events, and good luck!
Decipher the acronyms, determining the word that each letter stands for. A letter may stand for more than one word, as in ASCII or SCSI. The first acronym is a familiar one and the others are all derived from it. Each acronym has something to do with the software industry, and each is followed by a clue. Two more clues: "S/W" stands for "software" and "F" may stand for "flaming."
RTFM (universally ignored advice)
Unscramble each anagram to form a word or phrase related to the software industry, being sure to use all the letters.
Real friend or nuts?
Here the goal is to generate new palindromes, strings of characters that make some kind of sense, have something to do with the software industry, and read the same backward and forward. As indicated by the examples provided, they don't have to make a lot of sense. Spaces, capitalization, and punctuation can be ignored. Some notes on the example palindromes: XINU and GNU are species of UNIX; LOGLAN is a logical language and ALGOL an archaeological one; and DRI doesn't really have a BASIC.
Ada, sides reversed, is Ada.
Why is Christmas the same as Halloween?
Solutions to the Acronym and Anagram Events and the Bonus Question will be published in a random future issue of DDJ. All entries must be postmarked by midnight. No prizes will be awarded, but bad answers may be ridiculed in print and good answers stolen for next year's Games. The decisions of the judge are infallible.
Copyright © 1992, Dr. Dobb's JournalAcronym Event
RTFS (same advice, but for engineers)
RTFB (advice for novice users of Macintosh System 7)
RWFM? TFRM, TFUM, OTFG-SM? (choices, choices)
IAEF, RTFM (last-resort advice)
YWTFS/WRSN&IWTFMASAP (said the documenter to the developer)
IRTFM&ISCUTFS/W (why the advice is universally ignored)
ICRTFM; T1WWTFS/WWTFM2 (why programmers should program)
FTFM&FU2 (inflammatory response)
RWTFM? TJOS, TKR, OTKS? (maybe "F" doesn't always stand for "flaming")Anagram Event
Magic land of lost tribes.
Comment in jest by MIS; grad gets poorer.Palindrome Event
XINU = GNU hung = UNIX.
LOGLAN is in ALGOL.
C is a BASIC.
C is a BASIC is a BASIC is a BASIC is a BASIC is a BASIC.
C is a basis, as is a BASIC.
C is a Bastille. Hell, it's a BASIC.
C is a bird. (No put-on, miss: I'm not up on DRI BASIC.)Bonus Question
Stay Tuned for the Results