We present one type of analysis of a very short and very interesting program that runs on the Commodore 64, a one-line BASIC program that generates maze patterns by repeatedly randomly outputting a character representing one of two diagonal lines:

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5 + RND(1)); : GOTO 10

This program is a gateway to explaining important concepts in computation, creative and recreational computing, programming languages in general and BASIC particularly, home computing, and the relationship of computing to text, typography, and visual art. It uses randomness and creates a two-dimensional pattern from a repeating, one-dimensional process. It employs character graphics, elements meant to be fitted together like a mosaic which were implemented on top of an essentially typographical system. While the program is compelling, it does not easily fit into any standard category ("video game," "productivity software," "educational exercise") that we know of today.

As part of a larger study, we have approached this program by reimplementing it in several different languages on several different platforms, including Commodore 64 assembly language, Applesoft BASIC, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Processing, and the weird programming language Path, which uses "\" and "/" characters that are similar to the ones in the original program's output. By attempting to recreate this program, we discovered aspects of the Commodore 64 platform and the BASIC programming language that are important to the program's effect.