Obfuscated Perl Contest: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Perl programming competition}}

The '''Obfuscated Perl Contest''' was a competition for programmers of [[Perl]] which was held annually between [[1996]] and [[2000]].

The '''Obfuscated Perl Contest''' was a competition for programmers of [[Perl]] which was held annually between 1996 and 2000. Entrants to the competition aimed to write "devious, inhuman, disgusting, amusing, amazing, and bizarre Perl code".<ref>[http://www.foo.be/docs/tpj/issues/vol3_2/tpj0302-0012.html The 3rd Annual Obfuscated Perl Contest] Felix Gallo – Perl Journal (You may need to subscribe to the Perl Journal to be able to view this link, which is the source of the quote given.)</ref> It was run by ''The Perl Journal'' and took its name from the [[International Obfuscated C Code Contest]].<ref>{{cite book|page=256|title=[[Advanced Perl Programming]]|author=Simon Cozens|publisher=O'Reilly|year=2005|isbn=978-0-596-00456-9}}</ref>

== Contest ==

Entrants to the competition aim to write "devious, inhuman, disgusting, amusing, amazing, and bizarre Perl code" [http://www.tpj.com/documents/s=1286/sam03020012/] (link dead as of 24/04/2007) <ref>You may need to subscribe to the Perl Journal to be able to view this link, which is the source of the quote given.</ref>.

The entries arewere judged on aesthetics, output and incomprehensibility. One entrant per year will gainreceived the ''Best of Show'' award.

Entrants arewere advised to try and demonstrate a range of Perl knowledge, whilstwhile being humorous, surprising and deceitful. Code which purposefullypurposely crashescrashed the judges' machines iswas not recommendeddiscouraged.

The competition iswas typically divided into four categories, which, in the mostlast<!-- recentreally last? --> contest, included:

* Create a diversionDiversion (limit of 2048 bytes if using Perl/Tk, 512 bytes otherwise)

* World Wide Wasteland (limit of 512 bytes)

* Inner Beauty (limit of 512 bytes)

* Best ''The Perl Journal'' (code which generatesgenerated the words ''The Perl Journal'', limit of 256 bytes)

== See also ==

The entries are judged on aesthetics, output and incomprehensibility. One entrant per year will gain the ''Best of Show'' award.

* [[Obfuscated code]]

* [[Just another Perl hacker]]

== References ==

Entrants are advised to try and demonstrate a range of Perl knowledge, whilst being humorous, surprising and deceitful. Code which purposefully crashes the judges' machines is not recommended.

{{reflist}}

==See alsoFurther reading ==

* {{cite book|title=Games, Diversions, and Perl Culture|author=Jon Orwant|chapter=Obfuscated Perl|publisher=O'Reilly|year=2003|isbn=978-0-596-00312-8|pages=487–521}} — reprints of the announcements, made in ''The Perl Journal'' by Felix S. Gallo, of the Zeroth, First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth contests

*[[Obfuscated code]]

*[[Perl]]

*[[Just another Perl hacker]]

*[[The International Obfuscated C Code Contest]]

==External links==

*[http://mysite.verizon.net/les.peters/id2.html 2000 Best of Show winner with explanation and commentary]

*[http://perl.plover.com/obfuscated/ Second-place contest winner with explanation]

*[http://liraz.org/obfus.html The free Perl obfuscation service]

----

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Perl]]

[[Category:SatireComputer humour]]

[[Category:Ironic and humorous awards]]

[[Category:Programming contests]]

[[Category:Recurring events established in 1996]]

[[Category:Recurring events disestablished in 2000]]

[[de:Obfuscated Perl Contest]]

[[Category:Software obfuscation]]