I remember hearing about DDJ possibly as early as my last years in high school [‘89/‘90]. Didn’t care enough to subscribe while I was still studying at university [doing a non-CS course], so it wasn’t until around 2002 when a promotion for it came my way that I thought “hey, I should get a subscription to that”…

So, sent off the forms and got the first couple of issues on a trial – all Windows, nothing Mac, nothing Unix and quite insubstantial from what I recall. Emailed them and asked to cancel the subscription from becoming permanent. So Mike’s comments about reading it

“until a few years ago, when it had become thinner and more Window-centric”

Guess it’s just another death-rattle from print media dying around the planet.

I’m not quite sure of the etiquette yet about posting information on problem solutions, but my solution was just a brute-force hack anyway…nothing elegant about it, so I’m not entirely interested in posting my code here. If it was a “nice and elegant” optimal solution – the story might be a little different…meh.