"""
 jimmy_perm.py

 This idea works for the first few, 
 but after that doesn't do enough rearranging 
 on the 2..n characters.

 ['']
 ['a']
 ['ab', 'ba']
 ['abc', 'acb', 'bac', 'bca', 'cab', 'cba']
 ['abcd', 'abcd', 'abdc', 'abdc', 'adbc', 'adbc',     # OOPS - no 'ac...'
  'bacd', 'bacd', 'bcad', 'bcad', 'bcda', 'bcda', 
  'cbda', 'cbda', 'cdab', 'cdab', 'cdba', 'cdba', 
  'dabc', 'dabc', 'dacb', 'dacb', 'dcab', 'dcab']

"""
from math import factorial

def perm(chars):
    """ Given a string of characters, 
        return a list of all permutations 
        >>> perm('abc')
        ['abc', 'acb', 'bac', 'bca', 'cab', 'cba']
    """
    result = [chars]
    n = factorial(len(chars))
    if n < 2:
        return result
    while True:
        for i in range(2, len(chars)+1):
            new_chars = chars[1:i] + chars[0] + chars[i:]
            result.append(new_chars)
            if len(result) == n:
                return result
        chars = new_chars
    return result

for i in range(5):
    print(sorted(perm('abcdefghijk'[:i])))