Cody Boone Ferguson
de8ee5f41a
This is a large update that modifies every .entry.json file and fixes
many others. The changes of every .entry.json file are as follows:
- change 'entry source' to 'entry source code' [0]
- change 'original source' to 'original source code' [0]
- change 'directory path from top directory' to 'directory path from top
level directory'
[0] This is for consistency purposes. Other options were pondered but as
the index.html files refer to 'Alternate code' this was the simplest way
to go about it and it also feels more natural. A question was whether to
have 'entry code' and 'original entry code' or to have the word 'source'
added to it but I decided upon including the word 'source'. Another
question has occurred to me is whether or not 'original source code'
should instead be 'original entry source code' but that can be decided
upon later as that occurred to me after much of the files were already
rebuilt. The consistency that this commit has made is for the README.md
sections and in particular 'Alternate code'. One might wonder if that
should be changed to 'Alternate source code' as now the manifest
includes 'source' in the 'entry code' and 'original code' but the
manifest itself is what was actually updated and having 'source' feels
more natural for submitted files. After all not all entries have
alternate code. These questions can be decided on when looking at the
index.html files that have been rebuilt.
Changed 'alt code' to 'alternate code' where this was not already done
(in the manifest). It is questionable whether this should be done in
markdown files or not (in the README.md files section it already is done
but not necessarily in other places).
Many files had incorrect descriptions that have been checked.
Renamed 2020/endoh2/spoiler/spoiler.{md,html} to index.{md,html} so one
can go to just 2020/endoh2/spoiler and see the web page. Although the
manifest of 2 020/endoh2/index.html will link to it and that's probably
how most people will notice it it seems useful especially as the web
page links to the different files in spoiler/ or at least refers to
them, giving a description (kind of like the manifest in
2020/endoh2/index.html).
Due to the above changes all the entries had their index.html files
regenerated too.
There were likely other changes and fixes as well.
What has NOT been done is a check over all items, typos or otherwise,
though some typos have been fixed. Nonetheless this commit goes a long
way to resolving issue #1933.
Updated thanks file both with a missing <div> id and added a manifest
improvements section as the manifest is quite important.
Eighth International Obfuscated C Code Contest
View the index.html web page for the given winning entry for information on how
on how to compile it and how to run the winning program.
Look at the winning source and try to figure how it does what it does!
You may then wish to look at the Author's remarks for even more details.
Instructions for use: Run make to compile entries. It is possible that
on BSD or non-Unix systems the Makefile needs to be changed.
This year, we did not single out an entry that was better than all of the rest. We selected 3 entries that, in our opinion, went beyond all of the other entries this year:
- Grand Prize by Brian Westley
- Most Well Rounded by Diomidis Spinellis
- Best Of Show by Daniel J. Bernstein
Name and address information are separated from the actual program prior to judging. This eliminates any chance that we would bias our judging for/against any person or group. In the end, we are surprised as you are to see who has won. Even so, it is worth noting that Brian Westley has submitted a winning entry for the past 5 years!
A few notes regarding possible changes to the contest:
We did not give awards to some traditional contest categories such as "Best Layout" or "Worst Abuse of the Rules". We felt that to do so would deny awards to more deserving entries. These categories have not been eliminated, and will likely be considered in future years.
A number of entries made use of the following C pre-processor feature:
#define X define
#X foo bar
This is not permitted under ANSI C. Some ANSI C compilers do allow this. In the future, we do not want programs to use this feature. Because this request was not stated in the 1991 rules, we did not reject entries of this type. However we provided more portable versions so that more people could compile these programs.
This year we received entries that made use of the X Window System. Since this functionality is now available on many systems, we feel that programs that use these are now portable enough to be valid entries.
We may allow programs to make use of the X Window System libs and include
files, provided that they can operate with a system running at the level
of at least X11r4. Requiring the use of imake, a specific window manager,
specific display hardware, or a specific user interface (Openl**k,
M*tif, ...) is likely not to be allowed. We will provide a more detailed
explanation of our viewpoint in next year's rules.
In order to encourage more 'normal' looking C programs, we are considering the following change to the maximum size rule:
Your source, not counting any <space>, <tab>, and a <newline> character,
and not counting any ';', '{' and '}' character followed by a <newline>
character, must be 1536 bytes or less. The entire source, counting all
characters, be 4096 bytes or less.
Some thought has been given to adding some C++ categories, however this is not likely to happen soon. We are waiting until C++ compilers become common place on a wide number of systems. We also need time to brace ourselves for what obfuscation C++ could wield!
Be sure to wait until the 1992 rules are posted before submitting entries. We may fine tune the rules to reflect the some ideas above.
Please send us comments and suggestions what we have expressed above. Also include anything else that you would like to see in future contests. Send such email to:
...!{sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!judges
judges@toad.com
Final Comments
IMPORTANT NOTE: The email addresses found above are for historical purposes only, and should not be used today. See contact.html for up to date contact details as well as details on how to provide fixes to any of the entries. See also the IOCCC FAQ for additional information on the IOCCC.
Credits:
We would like to thank Barbara Frezza for her role as official chef of the contest. Landon Noll appreciated the opportunity to serve as assistant pizza chef. Larry Bassel was official taste tester. Yummo!