Baklava in Tex

Welcome to the Baklava in Tex page! Here, you'll find the source code for this program as well as a description of how the program works.

Current Solution

% Source: https://rosettacode.org/wiki/String_append#Plain_TeX
\def\addtomacro#1#2{\expandafter\def\expandafter#1\expandafter{#1#2}}

\obeyspaces
\newwrite\out
\immediate\openout\out=baklava.txt

% TeX doesn't seem to support nested loops; therefore, this needs to be
% flattened out to a single loop that runs from 0 to 330, where 331
% is the total number of characters if you add the length of all the
% lines together. This was determined by the following python code:
%
% >>> lines = [" " * abs(n) + "*" * (21 - 2 * abs(n)) for n in range(-10,11)]
% >>> sum(len(line) for line in lines)
% 331
%
% The general algorithm is as follows (prototyped in python):
%
%   linecounter = -10
%   linelen = 0
%   for charcounter = 0 to 330:
%       # If start of line, reset all variables
%       if linelen < 1:
%           line = ""
%           numspaces = abs(linecounter)
%           numstars = 21 - 2 *numspaces
%           linelen = numspaces + numstars
%       # If not done with spaces, append space to line
%       if linelen > numstars:
%           line += " "
%       # Else, append star to line
%       else:
%           line += "*"
%       # If end of line, output line and increment line counter
%       linelen -= 1
%       if linelen < 1:
%           print(line)
%           linecounter += 1

\newcount\charcounter
\newcount\linecounter
\newcount\numspaces
\newcount\numstars
\newcount\linelen

\linecounter=-10
\linelen=0
\charcounter=0
\loop
    \ifnum\linelen<1
        \def\line{}
        % numspaces = abs(linecounter)
        \numspaces=\linecounter
        \ifnum\numspaces<0
            \multiply\numspaces -1
        \fi
        % numstars = 21 - 2 *numspaces
        \numstars=\numspaces
        \multiply\numstars -2
        \advance\numstars 21
        % linelen = \numspaces + \numstars
        \linelen=\numspaces
        \advance\linelen \numstars
    \fi
    \ifnum\linelen>\numstars
        \addtomacro\line{ }
    \else
        \addtomacro\line{*}
    \fi
    \advance\linelen -1
    \ifnum\linelen<1
        \immediate\write\out{\line}
        \advance\linecounter 1
    \fi
    \advance\charcounter 1
\ifnum \charcounter<331
\repeat
\end

Baklava in Tex was written by:

• rzuckerm

If you see anything you'd like to change or update, please consider contributing.

How to Implement the Solution

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