Having troube understanding obfuscated code

[aidomarogu]

Hello, a friend of mine showed me this code:
http://www2.us.ioccc.org/2004/anonymous.c
Thats an entry for the 2004 International Obfuscated C Code Contest.

This is what the program does, in the author's own words:

"This program takes a single command line argument, transcribes the argument text into Tolkien's Elvish letters, and writes the transcription to standard output as a portable graymap (PGM) file."

I've taken a look at the source code, and there's quite a few concepts unknown to me, being a rather new C programmer. I think even seasoned C programmers would have troube understanding it. But that's not the point. I'm interested in knowing how the hell does he create those glyphs in the output file. I can't even imagine how that happens, but i believe it has something to do with those insane #define statements in the source code, which look like random strings but probably has a meaning behind them.

[weaknessforcats]

As a new programmer I would concentrate on non-obfuscated code. Most of what you see in these obfuscated code examples is what is called a Swiss watch program: Very finely crafted, does its job, parts can't be used in another watch, only a few skilled watchmakers can build one, no one knows how it works and it's expensive.

Should you write code like this on a real job, prepare to exit the premises forthwith.

However, you could get a copy of Obfuscated C and Other Mysteries.

ISBN 0-471-57805-3.

Enjoy this privately.