#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Text::Tabs;
use Symbol; #Symbol and
my @data;   #array instead of hash so the same file can be in several columns
my $sep ='';
if( $ARGV[0] =~ /^-sep/ ){
  (undef, $sep, @ARGV) = @ARGV;
}
die("usage: lam [-sep seperator] file1 file2 [...]\n") unless scalar @ARGV >1;
for(my $i=0; $i < scalar @ARGV; $i++){
  open($data[$i]->{FH}=gensym, $ARGV[$i]);
  $data[$i]->{w}=0;
  while(readline(*{$data[$i]->{FH}})){
    my $length = length(expand($_));
    $data[$i]->{w} = $length > $data[$i]->{w} ? $length : $data[$i]->{w};
  }
  $data[$i]->{h} = $.;
  seek($data[$i]->{FH}, 0, 0);
}
my $max = (sort {$main::b <=> $main::a} map {$_->{h}} @data)[0];
for(my $j=0; $j<$max; $j++){
  for(my $i=0; $i < scalar @ARGV; $i++){
    if( $j > $data[$i]->{h} ){
      print ' 'x$data[$i]->{w};
    }
    else{
      chomp($_ = readline(*{$data[$i]->{FH}}));
      $_ = expand($_);
      print $_, ' 'x($data[$i]->{w}-1-length);
    }
    print $sep unless $i+1 == scalar @ARGV;
  }
  print "\n";
}