# Hamming

Calculate the Hamming difference between two DNA strands.

A mutation is simply a mistake that occurs during the creation or
copying of a nucleic acid, in particular DNA. Because nucleic acids are
vital to cellular functions, mutations tend to cause a ripple effect
throughout the cell. Although mutations are technically mistakes, a very
rare mutation may equip the cell with a beneficial attribute. In fact,
the macro effects of evolution are attributable by the accumulated
result of beneficial microscopic mutations over many generations.

The simplest and most common type of nucleic acid mutation is a point
mutation, which replaces one base with another at a single nucleotide.

By counting the number of differences between two homologous DNA strands
taken from different genomes with a common ancestor, we get a measure of
the minimum number of point mutations that could have occurred on the
evolutionary path between the two strands.

This is called the 'Hamming distance'.

It is found by comparing two DNA strands and counting how many of the
nucleotides are different from their equivalent in the other string.

    GAGCCTACTAACGGGAT
    CATCGTAATGACGGCCT
    ^ ^ ^  ^ ^    ^^

The Hamming distance between these two DNA strands is 7.

# Implementation notes

The Hamming distance is only defined for sequences of equal length. This means
that based on the definition, each language could deal with getting sequences
of equal length differently.

## Getting Started

Make sure you have read the
[C page](http://exercism.io/languages/c) on the Exercism site. This covers
the basic information on setting up the development environment expected
by the exercises.


## Passing the Tests

Get the first test compiling, linking and passing by following the [three
rules of test-driven development][3-tdd-rules].

The included makefile can be used to create and run the tests using the `test`
task.

    make test

Create just the functions you need to satisfy any compiler errors and get the
test to fail. Then write just enough code to get the test to pass. Once you've
done that, move onto the next test.

[3-tdd-rules]: http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.TheThreeRulesOfTdd

As you progress through the tests, take the time to refactor your
implementation for readability and expressiveness and then go on to the next
test.

Try to use standard C99 facilities in preference to writing your own
low-level algorithms or facilities by hand.

## Source

The Calculating Point Mutations problem at Rosalind [http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/](http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/)

## Submitting Incomplete Solutions
It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.