ioccc/author

author directory

The author/ directory contains a JSON file for each author of at least one winning IOCCC entry. For each author, there is a JSON file with the following name format:

author/author_handle.json

where author_handle is defined below.

author_handle

Each author of a winning IOCCC entry has an assigned author_handle, an IOCCC unique string that matches this regex:

^[0-9a-z][0-9a-z_]*$

The author_handle, by default, is derived from the name of the author. While there is a algorithm that maps the name of the author (which can contain any UTF-8 characters) into a default author_handle string, those who submit an entry to the IOCCC are free to choose a different author_handle string.

An author who has won a previous IOCCC is encouraged to reuse their author_handle so that new winning entries will be associated with the same author or authors.

anonymous author_handle's

For an anonymous author, their handle is one of these forms:

Anonymous_year

or:

Anonymous_year.digits

The latter form is in case there are more than one anonymous author in a given year.

Anonymous author_handle's match this regexp:

Anonymous_[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][.0-9]*$

author_handle.json JSON syntax

The author_handle.json must have the following JSON members:

"no_comment" : "mandatory comment: because comments were removed from the original JSON spec",
"author_JSON_format_version" : "0.1 2023-05-22",

There must be the following JSON members:

"full_name" : "Your Full Name",
"sort_word" : "lowercaselast",
"location_code" : "XX",
"location_name" : "Formal location name",

• "full_name" value is the author's formal full name.
• "sort_word" value is the author's last name, mapped into lower case ASCII, as a JSON encoded string
• "location_code" value is a 2 UPPER CASE ISO 3166 code selected by the author
• "location_name" value is the formal name corresponding to the "location_code", in JSON encoded string form

A "sort_word" that is used to determine the position within the authors.html file, an author and the winners they submitted are to be listed.

A sort_word matches this regexp:

^[a-z][0-9a-z]*

And there must be the following JSON members:

"email" : "user0@example.com",
"url" : "https://a.host0.example.com/index.html",
"alt_url" : "https://b.host0.example.com/index.html",
"deprecated_twitter_handle" : "@something",
"mastodon" : "@mastodon0@example.com",
"mastodon_url" : "https://example.org/@mastodon0",
"github" : "@github0",
"affiliation" : "an affiliation group",

• "email" value is the author's email address as a JSON encoded string, or null if not given
• "url" value is the author's home page URL as a JSON encoded string, or null if not given
• "alt_url" value is the author's alternate or second URL as a JSON encoded string, or null if not given
• "deprecated_twitter_handle" value is the author's twitter handle as a JSON encoded string, starting with "@", or null if not given
• "mastodon" value is the author's Mastodon handle in "@user@server" form as a JSON encoded string, or null if not given
• "mastodon_url" value is the URL as a JSON encoded string of the author's Mastodon page, or null if not given
• "github" value is the author's GitHub username as a JSON encoded string, starting with "@", or null if not given
• "affiliation" is the author's affiliation as a JSON encoded string, or null if not given

If an author does not have one of the previous set of values, or wishes to not disclose it / keep it anonymous, then the JSON value can be null. For example:

"email" : null,
"url" : null,
"alt_url" : null,
"deprecated_twitter_handle" : null,
"mastodon" : null,
"mastodon_url" : null,
"github" : null,
"affiliation" : null,

NOTE: The JSON value of null is NOT enclosed in double quotes.

The "winning_entry_set" is an array of JSON members that indicate each of the IOCCC winning entries that the author is the author of. :-)

{ "entry_id" : "YYYY_dirname" }

The "YYYY_dirname" is a winner ID in JSON encoded string form.
Here "YYYY" is the IOCCC year, and "dirname" is the directory name of the winning entry under the given year directory.

NOTE: Due to mis-features in the JSON spec, the final JSON member must NOT be followed by a comma. For example:

"winning_entry_set" : [
    { "entry_id" : "1987_somedir" },
    { "entry_id" : "2020_entrydir" },
    { "entry_id" : "2024_dirname" }
]

author_handle.json example

Here is a fictitious author_handle.json example:

{
    "no_comment" : "mandatory comment: because comments were removed from the original JSON spec",
    "author_JSON_format_version" : "1.0 2023-06-10",
    "author_handle" : "first0_last0",
    "full_name" : "First Middle Last",
    "sort_word" : "lowercaselast",
    "location_code" : "AU",
    "location_name" : "Australia",
    "email" : "user0@example.com",
    "url" : "https://a.host0.example.com/index.html",
    "alt_url" : "https://b.host0.example.com/index.html",
    "deprecated_twitter_handle" : "@something",
    "mastodon" : "@mastodon0@example.com",
    "mastodon_url" : "https://example.org/@mastodon0",
    "github" : "@github0",
    "affiliation" : "an affiliation group",
    "winning_entry_set" : [
	{ "entry_id" : "1987_somedir" },
	{ "entry_id" : "2020_entrydir" },
	{ "entry_id" : "2024_dirname" }
    ]
}

Here is fictitious author_handle.json example where all entries that may be withheld are null:

{
    "no_comment" : "mandatory comment: because comments were removed from the original JSON spec",
    "author_JSON_format_version" : "1.0 2023-06-10",
    "author_handle" : "first0_last0",
    "full_name" : "First Middle Last",
    "sort_word" : "lowercaselast",
    "location_code" : "AU",
    "location_name" : "Australia",
    "email" : null,
    "url" : null,
    "alt_url" : null,
    "deprecated_twitter_handle" : null,
    "mastodon" : null,
    "mastodon_url" : null,
    "github" : null,
    "affiliation" : null,
    "winning_entry_set" : [
	{ "entry_id" : "1987_somedir" },
	{ "entry_id" : "2020_entrydir" },
	{ "entry_id" : "2024_dirname" }
    ]
}

NOTE to authors

If you wish to update / modify information about yourself, you need to modify your author_handle.json file via a GitHub pull request.