Grand prize in most well-rounded in confusion
Larry Wall
US
To build:
make all
To use:
./wall
Alternative code:
If you have an old compiler or a compiler that supports -traditional-cpp you
might enjoy looking at the original source in wall.alt.c.
To build:
# if you have an old enough compiler:
make alt
# or if you have gcc:
make CC=gcc alt
# or if you have a compiler that supports -traditional-cpp that's not gcc:
make CFLAGS+="-traditional-cpp" alt
NOTE: gcc in macOS is actually clang even the binary /usr/bin/gcc.
Use ./wall.alt as you would ./wall.
Judges' remarks:
The original version did not have a ';' character in the first line. This caused a number of System V C pre-preprocessors to gripe about a syntax error.
This program is a masterpiece of obfuscation and humor. Larry Wall (the hacker who gave us rn and patch) asks you to compile and consider the warning message generated by the C compiler. Then execute the program and type characters into its standard input. You will see why the compiler documents the program.
Author's remarks:
No remarks were provided by the author.
Copyright and CC BY-SA 4.0 License:
This file is Copyright (c) 2023 by Landon Curt Noll. All Rights Reserved. You are free to share and adapt this file under the terms of this license:
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
For more information, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/