It's Prime Time!
A colorful prime number clock for your terminal
by Erik Falor @fadein
Written in CHICKEN Scheme v5
What is a prime number clock?
This is a clock which lets you experience time in a whole new way. Disconnect from the regular rigidity of minutes and hours and feel the rhythm of pure number theory.
Each second since the Unix epoch is a 32-bit integer which, on modern computers using clever algorithms[1], can be factorized into its prime components in mere milliseconds. If it turns out that the current second is a prime number, then this moment, right now, is prime time!
If the second second from right now is also a prime number, that will be twin prime time (a real cause for celebration). Prime cousins, sexy primes and other rare combos are highlighted for your enjoyment. But enjoy these quickly, as now won't stay prime for long! How long will it take before you can experience a triple prime?
Some times are just teeming with primes. At other times primes are few and far between. With Primetime you can always know which time is the right time.
See for yourself
telnet unnovative.net
...or just build it!
Primetime requires that the following eggs are first installed with Chicken
Scheme's extension manager chicken-install(1):
- ansi-escape-sequences
- srfi-1
- srfi-13
- srfi-18
The following commands will install the requisite eggs and build a
statically-linked primetime executable:
$ chicken-install -s ansi-escape-sequences srfi-1 srfi-13 srfi-18
$ make
[1] The very clever prime factorization algorithm used by Primetime was adapted from a prior release of GNU Coreutils' factor(1) tool. https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/factor-invocation.html