4.3BSD/usr/contrib/icon/samples/meander.icn

#
#          M E A N D E R I N G   S T R I N G S
#

#  This main procedure accepts specifications for meandering strings
#  from standard input with the alphabet separated from the length by
#  a colon.

procedure main()
   local line, alpha, n
   while line := read() do {
      line ? if alpha := tab(upto(':')) then {
         move(1)
         if n := integer(tab(0)) then write(meander(alpha,n))
         else write("erroneous input")
         }
         else write("erroneous input")
      }
end

procedure meander(alpha,n)
   local result, t, i, c, k
   i := k := *alpha
   t := n-1
   result := repl(alpha[1],t)
   while c := alpha[i] do {
      if find(result[-t:0] || c,result)
      then i -:= 1
      else {result ||:= c; i := k}
      }
   return result
end