Simple Eye-Candy program

I'm going to pull my hair out!! I don't know what they hell is wrong with this simple program! I can't compile it, cuz it gives me the error: "Line 18, missing terminating ' character"

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

#define POSITIVE '\'
#define NEGATIVE 32
#define COLUMN_WIDTH 40
#define MAXLINES 100000

main()
{
    int c; /* character count */
    int l; /* line count */
    int p=0; /* positive value */
   
    for (l=1; l<=MAXLINES; ++l) {
        ++p;                    /* EQUATION */
        for (c=1; c!=p; ++c) {
                putchar(NEGATIVE);
                if (c > COLUMN_WIDTH) {
                                c = COLUMN_WIDTH - c;
                }
        }
        putchar(POSITIVE);
        putchar('\n');
    }
}

---

Line 18 is

Code:

---

                if (c > COLUMN_WIDTH) {

---

I have no idea what's wrong, and it's driving me crazy.

Anyone have ideas?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

#define POSITIVE '\\'          // <--------- change
#define NEGATIVE 32
#define COLUMN_WIDTH 40
#define MAXLINES 10

main()
{
    int c; /* character count */
    int l; /* line count */
    int p=0; /* positive value */
   
    for (l=1; l<=MAXLINES; ++l) {
        ++p;                    /* EQUATION */
        for (c=1; c!=p; ++c) {
                putchar(NEGATIVE);
                if (c > COLUMN_WIDTH) {
                                c = COLUMN_WIDTH - c;
                }
        }
        putchar(POSITIVE);
        putchar('\n');
    }
}

---

Awesome, thanks. Now the program isn't doing exactly what I wanted to.. but I'll try and figure that out.

Thank you.

Okay got it to work, here's my code:

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

#define POSITIVE 'X'
#define NEGATIVE 32
#define COLUMN_WIDTH 20
#define MAXLINES 100000
#define EQUATION ++p

main()
{
    int c; /* character count */
    int l; /* line count */
    int p=0; /* positive value */
   
    for (l=1; l<=MAXLINES; ++l) {
        EQUATION;                    /* EQUATION */
        p %= COLUMN_WIDTH;
        for (c=0; c!=p; ++c) {
                putchar(NEGATIVE);
        }
        putchar(POSITIVE);
        putchar('\n');
    }
}

---

The idea of this program is to experiment by defining different equations.

Problem is, the thing zips by so freaking fast that you can't even see the pattern. Is there a way I can control the speed of it?

Try:
Put in an fgets() call every 24 lines or so....

Or for more ideas you can look at these handy FAQ entries :D
http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284385

http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284392

I wouldn't advise using those sleeping functions because they are always runing and spent lots of CPU. Instead you could use the delay() function from the std libraries, although I think it's not ANSI C. This funtion uses the 0x15 interrupt to relinquish the CPU to other programs that might need it. If you're using VC++ you can use Sleep(), in windows.h, which does the same thing, but using the OS services.
If you're using VC++, or Borland c++ builder, or another IDE insert breakpoints throughout your code and debug it.

e.g.: if you do Sleep(500), your program stays idle for half second, and spents 0% CPU.

//edit
I had some porblems using the delay function in Windows XP: the time specified seems to be ignored, and the functions does nothing. Use Sleep instead: this works fine.

int main()
{
...
return 0;
}