16th IOCCC Winners Released

An anonymous submitter wrote: "A while ago the 16th IOCCC winners were announced. Apparently "releas[ing] the winning source by mid April 2002" actually means "within a year", but you can finally enjoy them here. Or, if you don't enjoy them, you can beat your head against the wall trying to figure out how these programs work ;-)"

Comments

woah

[klocwerk]

well that was an incredibly fast slashdotting.
and I was looking forward to having no freakin clue as to what any of the programs did.

Re:woah

[dereklam]

and I was looking forward to having no freakin clue as to what any of the programs did.

That's still the case, now that the server's slashdotted.

Lost here ...

[SuperDuG]

Okay so this is a contest to make a program where you have no idea what the program does by the source code?

Hell wouldn't that be like 60% of the open source projects out there? Don't belive me?? Open up one of those .cpp or .c files next time you "Download the source" and never take a look at it.

I can't confirm/deny this because I only got to see one program by "anonymous" who seems to post here on slashdot a whole lot.

But yeah this seems ... kinda cool, but goes against every coding practice/standard I've ever seen, seems to me this is comparable in non-geek terms to a upside down watermellon eating contest.

Re:Lost here ...

[pmcneill]

No, the contest is to demonstrate a mastery of ANSI C. Only someone who truly understands every intricacy of the preprocessor and the compiler can write one of these. A much better comparison might be something like an NBA slam dunk contest -- you'll see stuff that you won't see anywhere else and is completely stunning. Very, very few programmers could hope to create an entry such as these.

My entry:

[Thud457]

main(v,c)char**c;{for(v[c++]="First post!\n)";
(!!c)[*c]&&(v--||--c&&execlp(*c,*c,c[! !c]+!!c,!c));
**c=!c)write(!!*c,*c,!!**c);}

Re:My entry:

[PygmyTrojan]

error: 'execlp' : undeclared identifier
error: 'write' : undeclared identifier
warning: 'main' : function should return a value; 'void' return type assumed

I know who wrote them!

[Domingos Neto]

They work here at my company, I'm sure! I always see this kind of obfuscation when I have to debug code writen by other programmers that work with me!

No, I'm being unfair. IOCCC code is much easier to understand :o)

Re:I know who wrote them!

[gdr]

No, I'm being unfair. IOCCC code is much easier to understand

... and has fewer bugs.

Mirrors

[Nidhogg]

Google cache of mirrors

Enjoy them while they last.

Better still ..

[artg]

.. look at one of the mirrors

In case the page gets /.ed

[szquirrel]

yx; double u, b, tmin, sqrt(), tan(); double vdot(A, B) vec A, B; { return A.x*B.x + A.y*B.y + A.z*B.z; } vec vcomb(a, A, B) double a; vec A, B; { B.x += a*A.x; B.y += a*A.y; B.z += a*A.z; return B; } vec vunit(A) vec A; { return vcomb(1./sqrt(vdot(A, A)), A, black); } struct sphere *intersect(P, D) vec P, D; { best = 0; tmin = 1e30; s = sph+NSPHERE; while (s-->sph) b = vdot(D, U = vcomb(-1., P, s->cen)), u = b*b-vdot(U, U)+s->rad*s->rad, u = u>0 ? sqrt(u) : 1e31, u = b-u>TOL ? b-u : b+u, tmin = u>=TOL && u<tmin ? best = s, u : tmin; return best; } vec trace(level, P, D) vec P, D; { double d, eta, e; vec N, color; struct sphere *s, *l; if (!level--) return black; if (s = intersect(P, D)); else return amb; color = amb; eta = s->ir; d = -vdot(D, N = vunit(vcomb(-1., P = vcomb(tmin, D, P), s->cen))); if (d<0) N = vcomb(-1., N, black), eta = 1/eta, d = -d; l = sph+NSPHERE; while (l-->sph) if ((e = l->kl*vdot(N, U = vunit(vcomb(-1., P, l->cen)))) > 0 && intersect(P, U)==l) color = vcomb(e, l->color, color); U = s->color; color.x *= U.x; color.y *= U.y; color.z *= U.z; e = 1-eta*eta*(1-d*d); return vcomb(s->kt, e>0 ? trace(level, P, vcomb(eta, D, vcomb(eta*d-sqrt(e), N, black))) : black, vcomb(s->ks, trace(level, P, vcomb(2*d, N, D)), vcomb(s->kd, color, vcomb(s->kl, U, black)))); } main() { printf("%d %d\n", SIZE, SIZE); while (yx<SIZE*SIZE) U.x = yx%SIZE-SIZE/2, U.z = SIZE/2-yx++/SIZE, U.y = SIZE/2/tan(AOV/114.5915590261), U = vcomb(255., trace(DEPTH, black, vunit(U)), black), printf("%.0f %.0f %.0f\n", U); }

(with apologies to minray)

some karma whoring.. mirrors:

[magwm]

• Asia
  
• www.tw.ioccc.org
  - Hsin-Chu, Taiwan (24 48' N 120 59' E)

• Australia and other Pacific
• www.au.ioccc.org
  - Sydney, Australia (34 0' S 151 0' E)
  

• Europe
  
• www.de.ioccc.org
  - Humburg, Germany (53 33' N 10 2' E)
  
• www.es.ioccc.org
  - Madrid, Spain (40 25' N 3 41' W)
  
• www.gr.ioccc.org
  - Athens, Greece (38 00' N 23 44' E)
  

• Extraterrestrial
  
  SETI is looking for some sites :-)

• North America
• www0.us.ioccc.org
  - Sunnyvale California, US (37 22' N 122 02' W)
• www1.us.ioccc.org
  - Saint Paul, Minnesota US (44 57' N 93 06' W)

• South America
  none
  

We are looking for more mirrors.
Do you want to mirror the IOCCC web site?

Actually, no...

[devphil]

Longtime readers of alt.religion.kibology recognize "brane" as "the way brain is spelled after your own brain fails you."

However, this is a slashdot editor we're talking about here, so you're probably right. :-)

IOCCC?

[lucasw]

This story is something about the obfuscated code writing contest. I read something about this years ago but I certainly don't recognize the contest purely on its initials, and of course the writeup says very little, all the links are slashdotted, and the initial posts aren't very descriptive.

So the story itself is obfuscated? That would almost be vaguely clever, though I think poorly done is the more likely answer...

VB Developers

[SL33Z3]

To the average VB Developer, the words "Obfuscated C" is redundant.

Re:VB Developers

[Patrick May]

To the average VB Developer, the words "Obfuscated C" is redundant.

The average VB Developer doesn't understand words with as many syllables as "redundant."

a few mirrors , easily found thru google

[photon_chac]

http://fly.cc.fer.hr/ioccc/
http://stone.newton.c am.ac.uk/mirrors/IOCCC/realit y.sgi.com/csp/ioccc/

but just don't try to click this link : http://www.candy.net.au/IOCCC/

Three forms of security.

[Doctor Hu]

Security by obscurity.

Security by Obfuscation.

Security by Slashdot Effect.

Ah well, I guess it means I won't be using working hours today trying to work out how to use these "insights" in my own code.

Good code examples

[phrantic]

If you read the hints (the only bit that makes [some] sense to me) some of the code is pretty damn cool, and I've only got to the networked pong example. Does anyone know where you can get any of these programs with some nice comments like

/*this bit deals with n/w connection dummy */
:
:
/*this does something else */

Imagine my embarrassment...

[msouth]

...I didn't even know the International Olympic Committee had a c compiler.

(yeah, yeah, ObReinterpretedAcronymComment, I know)

Re:Imagine my embarrassment...

[PD]

Of course they have silly. They've also got the hard diskus throw, which is part of track and field. The biathlon is sponsored by AMD. The triathlon was just a gimmick to sell 50% more chips, but it flopped. Synchronized swimming is going to be joined by asynchronized swimming soon - promises to be a much faster competition. Boxing will be replaced by boxen because of complaints it was too violent. Of course, there are many computer geeks that play handball, especially when viewing porn. Though not strictly computers, may programmers will appreciate the Bob Dobbs Sled event.

My favorite...

[Arjuna Theban]

My all-time favorite IOCCC winner has been savastio.

It's been up on my cube wall for a while. If anyone complains about my code here at work I threaten them to code like it.

Always works!

Re:My favorite...

[NoInfo]

But have you seen 2001's 'Best of Show' entry?

ascii art competition?

[m0nkyman]

The IOCCC is an ASCII modern art competition right?

Re:ascii art competition?

[pro-mpd]

Wow, that took me off guard. But instead of posting something like "OMG LOL!", I think that I could momentarily pontificate on the validity of your statement.

That said, yes, it is somewhat of an ASCII art competition (ignoring the sarcasm of your comment). There is art in this obscure, confusing code. Somewhat of a "gee, I'm really not that good" kind of a factor, like what happens when you look at a really good painting that you could NEVER POSSIBLY make on your own, or the complexity and chaos found in one of those paintings by that guy that Ed Bundy played in that one movie.

Hilarity through complexity, art through chaos.

I for one...

[FroMan]

I for one, am glad my entry didn't win. Considering I submitted my entry *november 2001*. If I hadn't been released until yesterday I'd be pretty crabby. My wife would be really pissed also.

So, are there any interviews with the winners. I'd be curious where they were held and why it took so long to release them.

Formatting?

[Quixote]

Is it me, or is relying on formatting to obfuscate your code a bit cheesy? IMHO, a true work of art would be nicely formatted and all that, and still be incomprehensible beyond belief.

I thought you couldn't use #defines like that.

[Dthoma]

Aren't the rules such that if you use #defines in that stupid way your entry is disqualified? Or is that just me being bitter because someone used #define in an annoying manner?

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

[CrystalFalcon]

There is a whole essay on the topic. Funny as hell a read, and good in-your-face material for co-workers, too.

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

My public apology for the late release of the winn

[chongo]

Speaking for myself, as only one of the IOCCC judges:

I want to make a Public apology for the extremely late posting of the 2001 winners. The delay was discourteous to the people who put a great deal of effort into their submissions.

Rather than go into the reasons for the delay here: Let me say that when the 17th IOCCC occurs, things will be done differently.

Thank you all those who encouraged us to complete the 16th IOCCC. And a very big S O R R Y for the lateness of the release.

How the IOCCC was started

[chongo]

One day (23 March 1984 to be exact), back Larry Bassel and I (Landon Curt Noll) were working for National Semiconductor's Genix porting group, we were both in our offices trying to fix some very broken code. Larry had been trying to fix a bug in the classic Bourne shell (C code #defined to death to sort of look like Algol) and I had been working on the finger program from early BSD (a bug ridden finger implementation to be sure). We happened to both wander (at the same time) out to the hallway in Building 7C to clear our heads.

We began to compare notes: "You won't believe the code I am trying to fix". And: "Well you cannot imagine the brain damage level of the code I'm trying to fix". As well as: "It more than bad code, the author really had to try to make it this bad!"

After a few minutes we wandered back into my office where I posted a flame to net.lang.c inviting people to try and out obfuscate the UN*X source code we had just been working on.

(I had to post this typo correction :-). Thus began the tradition of putting typos in the contest rules and guidelines ... to make them more obfuscated of course! :-)

BTW: This posting was made back in the days when AT&T was the evil giant. Now, Microsoft makes AT&T look mild and kind in comparison. :-( (IMHO) ).

BTW: See the story about the ''Bill Gates'' award. :-)

OK, back to the story. We received a number of entries by EMail. When we began to receive messages from outside of the US, Larry and I decided to include International in the name. The 1st IOCCC winners were posted on 17 April 1984.

There were 4 winners in 1984.

1. <dis>honorable mention
2. 3rd place
3. 2nd place
4. 1st place

The <dis>honorable mention wished to remain anonymous. While many have asked who it was, we have continued to follow the author's wish to remain anonymous. A few years ago, we asked the author if they still wanted to remain anonymous. They said: "Yes, I want to keep my anonymity. But you can tell them that I am a well known for my connection to the C language". The only other anonymous winner occurred this year.

The 1984 winner remains one of my all time favorites.

The name used in the posting of the 1st IOCCC winner posting was International Obfuscated C Code Contest or IOCCC for short.

The posting said 1st annual, so in 1985 we held the 2nd IOCCC contest and the tradition continues as the longest running contest on the Internet.

P.S. Part of the inspiration for making the IOCCC a contest goes to the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest.

P^2.S. See the overall README for more details.

P^3.S. See also the IOCCC FAQ.

P^4.S. Please see my apology for the late posting of the 2001 winners.