> This INTERCAL code uses a clever trick to generate seemingly "random" numbers - using the `%50` operation (which in INTERCAL means to mingle the bits of two 16-bit numbers), along with unary operations like `#1`, `#2`, `#4`, etc. on the same variable, to generate different results each time the loop is run.
I don't know INTERCAL but this appears to be pure bullshit. Wikipedia's description of `%50` is consistent with the article author's: "after the identifier, a percent chance of the line executing can be given in the format %50, which defaults to 100%." [1]
And contrary to GPT-4's doubling down on INTERCAL not containing any random number support, a built in language feature that executes (or not) a line of code with a chosen probability really is random number support built into the language, just with a deliberately bizarre interface in keeping with the rest of the language.
I don't know INTERCAL but this appears to be pure bullshit. Wikipedia's description of `%50` is consistent with the article author's: "after the identifier, a percent chance of the line executing can be given in the format %50, which defaults to 100%." [1]
And contrary to GPT-4's doubling down on INTERCAL not containing any random number support, a built in language feature that executes (or not) a line of code with a chosen probability really is random number support built into the language, just with a deliberately bizarre interface in keeping with the rest of the language.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL