% p-ching -- A C (and php) program that throws the electronic yarrow stalks
% Jessica L. Parsons <orc@pell.portland.or.us>
%

<style type="text/css">
/* .float gives me a pretty yellow box for the divination;
 * I restyle dl/dd to pack the list closely together.
 */
.float {
    float:right;
    width:30%;
    background:yellow;
    border:1px solid #000;
    margin:1em;
    padding:1em; }
dl { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
dd { margin: 0; padding: 0; margin-left: 9.5em;}
code { white-space: pre-wrap; }
pre { white-space: pre; }
</style>

#P Ching

<div class="float">
<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align=center>
<tr><td align=center colspan=2><code><pre>
---------------
---------------
---------------
-----     -----
-----     -----
---------------
</pre></code></td></tr><tr><th>Hexagram: </th><td>36
</td></tr><tr><th>Name:     </th><td>Ming I
</td></tr><tr><th>Meaning:  </th><td>Darkening of the light,<br/>
the symbol of<br/>
lack of appreciation.</td></tr>
</table>
</div>

**p-ching** started out, 30 or so years ago, as an Ada program that
I found on some ada BBS, then converted to Pascal, then to P2 (a pascal
derivative that I hacked out of the UCSD I.4 Pascal compiler), then to
C on the Atari ST, then C on the IBM PC running MS-DOS (and finally
the IBM PC running either [Mastodon Linux](/~mastodon)
or [FreeBSD](http://www.freebsd.org).

I don't have the slightest idea where it came from originally.  I
got it from a legitimate BBS, so odds are that it's okay to distribute
for noncommercial use.   But a **LOT** of code distributed on BBSes
in those days explicitly denied permission to include in other
code, use for commercial gain, or distribution of binaries without
source, so I must also deny you the right to do any of those things
to this code.

##p-ching as a CGI script
For fun, I converted **p-ching** into a
[php script](p_ching.txt),
which makes a fine dynamic banner on a page

##Source Code

[p\_ching.c](p_ching.c)
:   The (C language) source.
[p\_ching.php](p_ching.txt)
:   The (PHP language) source.
[i\_ching.dat](i_ching.dat)
:   The (english-language) data file