Puzzle 17: Huh?

Is this a legal Java program? If so, what does it print?

\u0070\u0075\u0062\u006c\u0069\u0063\u0020\u0020\u0020\u0020

\u0063\u006c\u0061\u0073\u0073\u0020\u0055\u0067\u006c\u0079

\u007b\u0070\u0075\u0062\u006c\u0069\u0063\u0020\u0020\u0020

\u0020\u0020\u0020\u0020\u0073\u0074\u0061\u0074\u0069\u0063

\u0076\u006f\u0069\u0064\u0020\u006d\u0061\u0069\u006e\u0028

\u0053\u0074\u0072\u0069\u006e\u0067\u005b\u005d\u0020\u0020

\u0020\u0020\u0020\u0020\u0061\u0072\u0067\u0073\u0029\u007b

\u0053\u0079\u0073\u0074\u0065\u006d\u002e\u006f\u0075\u0074

\u002e\u0070\u0072\u0069\u006e\u0074\u006c\u006e\u0028\u0020

\u0022\u0048\u0065\u006c\u006c\u006f\u0020\u0077\u0022\u002b

\u0022\u006f\u0072\u006c\u0064\u0022\u0029\u003b\u007d\u007d

Solution 17: Huh?

Of course it's a legal Java program! Isn't it obvious? It prints Hello world. Well, maybe it isn't so obvious. In fact, the program is totally incomprehensible. Each time you use a Unicode escape unnecessarily, you make your program a bit less comprehensible, and this program takes the concept to its logical extreme. In case you are curious, here is what the program looks like after the Unicode escapes are translated to the characters they represent:

public

class Ugly

{public

    static

void main(

String[]

    args){

System.out

.println(

"Hello w"+

"orld");}}

Here is how it looks after cleaning up the formatting:

public class Ugly {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        System.out.println("Hello w" + "orld");

    }

}

The lesson of this puzzle is: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Alternatively, If it hurts when you do it, don't do it! More seriously, this puzzle serves to reinforce the lessons of the previous three: Unicode escapes are essential when you need to insert characters that can't be represented in any other way into your program. Avoid them in all other cases. Unicode escapes reduce program clarity and increase the potential for bugs.

For language designers, perhaps it should be illegal to use Unicode escapes to represent ASCII characters. This would make the programs in Puzzles 14, 15, and 17 (this puzzle) invalid, eliminating a great deal of confusion. This restriction would cause no great hardship to programmers.