#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $chars = {};
for (my $i=33; $i<=127; $i++) {
    my $oct = sprintf("\\%o", $i);
    $chars->{chr($i)} = $oct;
}
foreach my $word (@ARGV) {
    my(@str) = split(//,$word); 
    foreach my $letter (@str) {
        print $chars->{$letter};
    }
    print " ";
}
# ./obus.pl just another Perl hacker,
# returns
# \152\165\163\164 \141\156\157\164\150\145\162 \120\145\162\154 \150\141\143\153\145\162\54

# \40 gives character 32, the space.