This is a draft edit of the revised IOCCC guidelines for **IOCCC29**.
Due the above, `next/guidelines.md` has undergone a significant update.
The `next/rules.md` and `faq.md` files have been modified accordingly.
The `faq.md` version is now **29.01 2025-11-28**.
The `next/guidelines.md` version is now **29.00 2025-11-28**.
The `next/rules.md` version is now *29.08 2025-11-28**.
Draft **IOCCC29** dates have been added to `rules.md`.
Ran `make quick_www` to perform the above.
TODO: Continue to revise and improve the IOCCC guidelines.
TODO: Fix typos and minor nits in the `next/guidelines.md`.
TODO: Fix typos and minor nits in the `next/rules.md`.
Switched to "#" (hash) for headings in `rules.md`.
Added "-" (dash) after the rule number and before the
rule keyword.
Adjusted links rules elsewhere according to the above.
Ran `make quick_www` to perform the above.
This was missed in yesterday's edit. There might be others that were
missed but the anchor mkiocccentry_process was removed and now is no
longer referenced anywhere.
This commit also removed some of the 'new marks' in the guidelines and
rules (as they're no longer new) and some that were in the FAQ (which
only happened when they were changed over to the FAQ).
Removed problematic FAQs (per discussion). This required renumbering.
Updated references of chkentry to chksubmit (only a few references to
chkentry remain now - advising contestants to not use it but simply
stating it is for the judges and it is what chksubmit uses).
Added note in guidelines about gotos becoming 'old' (as Landon told me
it is something Leo wanted in the next guidelines thanks to me). Just so
Landon does not forget my C sins. :-)
I have regenerated the html files but the guidelines.html and rules.html
files have not been link-checked as these files will be modified by the
judges a fair amount so there is no point yet. I believe I got
references to nuked FAQs out but it's possible some were missed.
The quick-start.md and next/submit.md (and their html files) were
updated as well to refer to chksubmit instead of chkentry.
It is quite possible some things were missed but this should help move
things closer to getting ready for IOCCC29 in December.
We thank Joel Yliluoma for rendering a record sided 1024x1024 image.
Sorted authors in `thanks-for-help.md` by last name.
Updated `2024/endoh1/README.md` with record sided 1024x1024 image.
Made tarballs `2024/endoh1/2024_endoh1.tar.bz2` and `2024/2024.tar.bz2`
due to the above edits.
Made tarballs `2011/2011.tar.bz2` and `2011/goren/2011_goren.tar.bz2`
based on previous edits.
Ran `make quick_www tar sitemap` to perform the above.
We indent FAQ 10.6.1, added in a previous commit, in the
same way we indent 3rd level FAQ numbers. Also adjusted
the vertical whitespace around the FAQ in `faq.md` to
be consistent with the other FAQ sections.
Updated sitemap.
Ran `make faq sitemap` to perform the above.
It is not clear, as the FAQ shows for now, whether this works with just
desktop/computers or not - it is only possible to enable it on computers
(or if it's possible in mobile devices I did not see it though I only
checked with an iPhone).
This FAQ should probably be linked to in the guidelines later on as
right now it says that one should reload the feed as you do not get
notifications unless you are mentioned (assuming you have push
notifications enabled). As one of the pending changes post winners being
announced (02 August 2025 at 11 Pacific) is to clean up the guidelines,
rules and maybe the FAQ (that was rushed towards the end so as to not
delay IOCCC28 even longer) I have not done this.
Rebuilt faq.html. New image under png/.
FAQ version: 28.2.21 2025-07-31.
Prepare for the winners of **IOCCC28**.
> However these are not the 2024 droids you are looking for. :-)
The HTML menu (both JavaScript and non-JavaScript) has been updated.
The `Status -> Rules and guidelines' have been replaced with two
separate menus `Status -> IOCCC rules` and `Status -> IOCCC guidelines`.
Added a new top level `social.html` page: built from a new `social.md`.
Sorted rules for building specific web pages in the top level `Makefile`.
Added `make social` to make the `social.html` page from `social.md`.
The `bin/gen-top-html.sh` now is able to process a argument of **social**
to process the new top level `social.html` page.
Changed `bin/gen-top-html.sh` VERSION from "2.0.0 2025-03-13"
to "2.0.1 2025-07-25".
Below `About -> Home page` a new `About -> IOCCC social media` menu item
as added.
Because the menu change touched every HTML file, we changed the general
copyright date range for HTML files from "1984-2024" to "1984-2025"
due to the extensive changes made for **IOCCC28**.
Those markdown files that were modified in 2025 had their copyright date
range also changed from "1984-2024" to "1984-2025".
Rebuilt tarballs and sitemap due to the extensive HTML rebuilding.
Ran `make update` to perform the above.
The questions:
Can I download my submission tarball from the submit server?
Can I delete a submission from the submit server?
were added per brief discussion in IOCCC28.
Added FAQ 5.12 regarding how to compile entries that use ncurses if we
only have the old classic curses.
Clarified how FAQ 5.2 relates to FAQ 0.2.
Update sitemap.
Tested the above via `make quick_www timestamp` on macOS.
Added news based on the recent
[release 2.4.3 2025-03-11](https://github.com/ioccc-src/mkiocccentry/releases/tag/2.4.3)
of the [mkiocccentry toolkit](https://github.com/ioccc-src/mkiocccentry).
Updated the FAQ with additional information about the above mentioned release.
Fixed use of double blank lines in `faq.md` so that they:
- precede all markdown headings
- precede and follow all "Jump to top" lines
Added missing "Jump to top" lines.
Fixed Section 2 internal link.
Performed `make www gen_status gen_sitemap timestamp` to update the website.
New FAQ on what the minimum versions are (this should be updated every
contest or updated to refer to the result of the issue I opened at the
other repo - post IOCCC28) for each tool.
Added details about the new (soon to be released) version of the tools
that now search under $PATH.
This commit updated the FAQ, the guidelines and the quick start guide.
As a reminder you do NOT need to use the upcoming release of the tools
and not doing so will not invalidate any of your submissions as it is
based on a minimum version, not an exact version.
The new options to mkiocccentry are -x to delete the submission
directory if if it already exists and the -u uuidfile and -U uuidstr
options.
NOTE: it is NOT required to update the tools for this IOCCC and you do
NOT have to read the updated guidelines to follow the guidelines for
this IOCCC.
The warnings highbit_warning, wordbuf_warning and first_rule_is_all are
no longer used and will be removed for IOCCC29 and beyond. Thus the
tools no longer care about them.
There were other additions to mkiocccentry like the useful -u uuid
option to read in your UUID from a file so you don't have to copy paste
it per submission. Although that would be useful in the guidelines to
do that would require the version update which is problematic in an open
contest. Thus it can be added for IOCCC29 after this one.
IMPORTANT NOTE: you do NOT have to update the tools unless you want to!
The submit server will no longer flag submissions with those booleans
set to true and when the judges run the tools they won't flag them
either. So if you are just fine with what you're doing, and if the
recent fixes do not have an impact on your work you are perfectly fine
using the current versions you have as version requirements are no
longer a single value but a range. Of course you might still wish to
check that you weren't flagged for some other issue but you no longer
have to worry about those three warnings.
After my final commit and merge in mkiocccentry pre-release a pull did
not get the tag. I had to do:
git fetch --all --tags
instead. So to make sure everyone has the correct tag I have added this
to the FAQ (replacing the 'git fetch' by itself).
Regenerated faq.html.
Renamed some FAQs (typos and/or other things).
Fix a number of typos in various files (including markdown format
errors).
Rules and guidelines should be relatively good although as there is a
lot to get through and not much time left maybe I missed something (I
also kind of cheated doing the final checks with the guidelines rather
than going through them all again).
The next/try.sh and next/try.alt.sh scripts have had updates as well and
the next/Makefile.example was modified too.
The index.html page now has an anchor for goals of the contest so that
the goals in the rules could simply link to it in index.html.
Although some text had to be added (and some corrected) a reasonable
amount of text was also removed as it was elsewhere or was extraneous in
some way.
A choice was made a while back to use website and not web site so
changed all new references of 'web site' to 'website':
sgit -e 's/web site/website/g' '*.md' '*.html'
As this also occurs in the FAQ and there were some minor mods (just
textual, including some fun, not a new FAQ) these are included too.
In order simplify the write-up of the actual Rule 17
into a new FAQ 1.8. The somewhat shorted Rule 17 text
now refers to checks performed by tools, encourages
their use, discourages their misuse (overriding limits),
and is easier to read: we think.
This addresses most (if not all) of the recent changes to chkentry(1)
though a more thorough check will be made later after the mkiocccentry
code freeze.
I have thought of and plugged additional holes in the process (same with
txzchk but that's beyond the scope of the document) so the FAQ was
updated for this.
Also because it is a long list of steps there is now a TL;DR part above
it.
There was an order issue in the list as well.
The FAQ stated (due to a mistake in the issue in the mkiocccentry repo)
that the submission directory (under workdir) has the timestamp in it
but that is not true. Instead the tarball filename has the timestamp.
Typo fix in guidelines.
The list now details every step taken and the question was also changed
to help make it easier to find (one need not read this but if they want
to it is now in the correct order).
It is highly recommended that you run the tool from either the repo
directory itself (making sure you have the most up to date version of
course) or make sure you have installed it (also making sure you have
the most recent version). Not doing this will cause issues with checks
and in the case of out of date versions the submission would be rejected
due to violating rule 17. One can specify the options to mkiocccentry
for the tools required but if you forget or don't have the most up to
date version you will very likely run into problems.
Rule 17 mandates specific file permissions for files/directories in
submission tarballs but the documentation did not state this. More work
might need to be done here but it should be better now.
The next/remarks.example.md filename is kind of a misnomer but it was
named this way to match Makefile.example. It has brief instructions
along with a link to the FAQ about what one should put in their
remarks.md file (and the FAQ links to the new file as a starting point
as it has instructions).
The markdown guidelines were updated to note that if one does use
sections in remarks.md file they should start out at heading level 3
(###) and for each subsection increment it by one (up to level 6).
The new syntax (though not all functionality is yet finished) of
mkiocccentry does not match what was in the FAQ, guidelines and rules.
Also added an important reminder to use v7 format with tarballs as not
doing so can reveal who you are which would break the rules. This is
mentioned in the rules and guidelines, showing how to create such a
tarball.
More work does have to be done with these two things however.
Landon Curt Noll