#!/usr/bin/env fish

# 20260428 (>)32 iterations in, Digit got (mistral &) claude to make:

# a rudimentary matrix cascade in fish, that may have some utility

# (you can pipe files into it!)

set -l lines (cat $argv)
set -l num_lines (count $lines)
set -l cols (tput cols)

# shuffled column positions, cycling for files longer than screen width
set -l col_positions (seq 1 $cols | awk 'BEGIN{srand()} {print rand(), $0}' | sort -n | awk '{print $2}')

# find longest line
set -l longest 0
for i in (seq 1 $num_lines)
    set -l l (string length -- $lines[$i])
    if test $l -gt $longest; set longest $l; end
end

set -l active 0
set -l row 0
set -l total_rows (math $longest + $num_lines)

while test $row -lt $total_rows
    set row (math $row + 1)

    if test $active -lt $num_lines
        set active (math $active + 1)
    end

    set -l row_chars
    for i in (seq 1 $cols)
        set -a row_chars " "
    end

    for i in (seq 1 $active)
        # stagger: column i starts printing at row i, so char index is row - i + 1
        set -l char_idx (math $row - $i + 1)
        if test $char_idx -lt 1; continue; end

        set -l ch (string sub -s $char_idx -l 1 -- $lines[$i])
        if test -n "$ch"
            # cycle col_positions for files with more lines than cols
            set -l slot (math "($i - 1) % $cols + 1")
            set row_chars[$col_positions[$slot]] $ch
        end
    end

    printf "%s\n" (string join "" $row_chars) | lolcat --force
    sleep 0.05
end