# mimic
*[ab]using Unicode to create tragedy*

### Introduction

<img alt="monster" align="right"
     src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1236420/10557120/f1faedfe-746b-11e5-8a7b-671bd3e30691.jpg" />

mimic provokes:
- fun
- frustration
- curiosity
- murderous rage

It's inspired by this terrible idea floating around:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MT: Replace a semicolon (;) with a greek question mark (;) in your friend&#39;s C# code and watch them pull their hair out over the syntax error</p>&mdash; Peter Ritchie (@peterritchie) <a href="https://twitter.com/peterritchie/status/534011965132120064">November 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

There are many more characters in the Unicode character set that look, to some extent or another, like others – homoglyphs. Mimic substitutes common ASCII characters for obscure homoglyphs.

Fun games to play with mimic:
- Pipe some source code through and see if you can find all of the problems
- Pipe someone else's source code through without telling them
- Be fired, and then killed

### Results

Observe the mayhem:

<img alt="some bad code"
     src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1236420/10564931/76507da4-7592-11e5-9971-f6a04ad06298.png" />
*"BUT WHY?"*

Or, if you've been mimicked a little harder,

<img alt="some worse code"
     src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1236420/10564914/f7963ae4-7591-11e5-9b45-f123e42b22f4.png" />

### Discussion

People have noticed how terrible this is.

[SlashDot](http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/10/24/1759201/mimic-the-evil-script-that-will-drive-programmers-to-insanity)

[Reddit](https://reddit.com/r/programming/3pcs0c)

[ycombinator](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10437619)

[BoingBoing](http://boingboing.net/2015/10/23/evil-script-replaces-punctuati.html)

[The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/25/ruin_your_codevelopers_life_with_mimic_the_unicode_substitution_tool/)

### Further Reading

[mimic wiki](https://github.com/reinderien/mimic/wiki)