IOCCC Accepting New, 'Improved' Entries

Rudolf writes: "The 16th International Obfuscated C Code Contest is open from now until 01 Dec 2001 23:59:59 UTC. Details are at the IOCCC web site. From the front page, the contest goals are: -- To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program (within contest rules -- To show the importance of programming style, in an ironic way. -- To stress C compilers with unusual code. -- To illustrate some of the subtleties of the C language. -- To provide a safe forum for poor C code. :-)"

Comments

Anecdote

[mirko]

The following event was related by ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst).

The highlight of the annual Computer Bowl occurred when
Bill Gates,
who was a judge, posed the following
question
to the contestants:

"What contest, held via Usenet, is dedicated to examples of weird, obscure, bizarre, and really bad programming?"

After a moment of silence, Jean-Louis Gassee (ex-honcho at Apple) hit his buzzer and answered:

"Windows."

Mr. Bill's expression was, in the words of one who was there, "classic."

1990 winner

[Lussarn]

This is the 1990 winner. A complete basic interpreter. For fun I unobfuscated this code (Took a couple of hours). it's really a piece of art. several commands. Variables. Parentesis and operator precedence. Cool Stuff.


#define O(b,f,u,s,c,a)b(){int o=f();switch(*p++){X u:_ o s b();X c:_ o a b();default:p--;_ o;}}
#define t(e,d,_,C)X e:f=fopen(B+d,_);C;fclose(f)
#define U(y,z)while(p=Q(s,y))*p++=z,*p=' '
#define N for(i=0;io&&!*z)_ x;}_ 0;}main(){m[11*R]="E";while(puts("Ok"),gets(B)
)switch(*B){X'R':C=E;l=1;for(i=0;i",'#');U("=",' !' );}d=B;while(*F=*s){*s=='"'&&j
++;if(j&1||!Q(" \t",F))*d++=*s;s++;}*d--=j=0;if(B[1]!='=')switch(* B){X'E':l=-1
X'R':B[2]!='M'&&(l=*--C)X'I':B[1]=='N'?gets(p=B) ,P [*d]=S():(*(q=Q(B,"TH"))=0,p
=B+2,S()&&(p=q+4,l=S()-1))X'P':B[5]=='"'?*d=0,pu ts (B+6):(p=B+5,printf("%d\n",S
()))X'G':p=B+4,B[2]=='S'&&(*C++=l,p++),l=S()-1 X'F':*(q=Q(B,"TO"))=0;p=B+5;P[i
=B[3]]=S();p=q+2;M[i]=S();L[i]=l X'N':++P[*d]',>)O(K,V,'$',=)
O(V,W,'+',+,'-',-)O(W,Y,'*',*,'/',/)Y(){int o;_*p=='-'?p++,-Y():*p>='0'&&*p

new to this contest

[chongo]

As part of the IOCCC tradition, we always tweak/adjust the rules and guidelines each year. Noteworthy changes for the 16th contest include:

• New max size limits: 4096 (was 3217)
  (We gotta keep up with the code bloat like everyone else :-) :-()
• New max size for non-whitespace / non {:} chars: 2048 (was 1536)
• New max compile/build line: 521 (was 255)
  (why 521? Well 521 is prime and 2^521-1 is a Mersenne prime and I like primes ... :-))
• We now allow people to use OpenMotif
• MS gets two pot shots directed at it in this contest (yet another tradition)