International Obfuscated C Code Contest: Difference between revisions

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The '''International Obfuscated C Code Contest''' (abbreviated '''IOCCC''') is a [[computer programming]] contest for the most creatively [[obfuscated code|obfuscated]] [[C (programming language)|C]] [[Source code|code]]. Held annually, it is described as "celebrating [C's] syntactical opaqueness".<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/how-to/beyond-the-command-line |access-date=2013-04-07 |title=Beyond the command line |magazine=[[PC World Magazine]] New Zealand |authorlast=Palmer, |first=Geoff |date=November 1, 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210081342/http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/how-to/beyond-the-command-line |archive-date=February 10, 2013 }}</ref> The winning code for the 27th contest, held in 2020, was released in July 2020.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.ioccc.org/years-spoiler.html | title = Previous IOCCC Winners | access-date = 2014-01-08 | year = 2014 | publisher = IOCCC | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131223151342/http://www.ioccc.org/years-spoiler.html | archive-date = 2013-12-23 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Previous contests were held in the years 1984–1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004–2006, 2011–2015 and 2018–2020.

Entries are evaluated anonymously by a panel of judges. The judging process is documented in the competition guidelines<ref name=guidelines>{{cite web| url = http://www.ioccc.org/2015/guidelines.txt | title = 2015 Guidelines | access-date = 2015-11-20 | year = 2015 | format = plain text | publisher = IOCCC}}</ref> and consists of elimination rounds. By tradition, no information is given about the total number of entries for each competition. Winning entries are awarded with a category, such as "Worst Abuse of the [[C preprocessor]]" or "Most Erratic Behavior", and then announced on the official IOCCC website. The contest states that being announced on the IOCCC website is the reward for winning.

==History==

The IOCCC was started by [[Landon Curt Noll]] and Larry Bassel in 1984 while employed at National Semiconductor's Genix porting group. The idea for the contest came after they compared notes with each other about some poorly written code that they had to fix, notably the [[Bourne shell]], which used macros to emulate [[ALGOL 68]] syntax, and a buggy version of [[finger (Unix)|finger]] for BSD.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://www.ioccc.org/faq.html | title = FAQ | publisher=IOCCC| access-date = 2011-11-12 }}</ref> The contest itself was the topic of a quiz question in the 1993 Computer Bowl.<ref>[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB71B1E74EA9019&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Top Execs Fail To Compute Correctly"]. ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'', California. May 15, 1993. Pgp. 1A. Via [[Newsbank]]. {{subscription required}}</ref> After a hiatus of five years starting in 2006, the contest returned in 2011.<ref name=SJMerc11>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/243995/obfuscated_code_contest_returns.html |title=Obfuscated Code Contest Returns |magazine=PCWorld[[PC World]]|date=November 15, 2011 |authorlast=Jackson, |first=Joab |access-date=2013-04-07}}</ref>

Compared with other programming contests, the IOCCC is described as "not all that serious" by [[Michael Swaine (technical author)|Michael Swaine]], editor of ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/there-must-be-contest/207404123 |title=There Must be Contest | first=Michael | last=Swaine | author-link=Michael Swaine (technical author) |magazine=[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]|date=May 1, 2008 |access-date=2013-04-07 }}</ref>

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Each year, the rules of the contest are published on the IOCCC website. All material is published under [[Creative Commons license]] [[Share-alike|BY-SA]] 3.0 Unported.<ref>[https://www.ioccc.org/ IOCCC home page, footer], and in each hint.txt file</ref> Rules vary from year to year and are posted with a set of guidelines that attempt to convey the spirit of the rules.

::"{{Blockquote|text=Hacking the contest rules is a tradition". ''— Landon Curt Noll, 2011.''<ref name=SJMerc11 />}}

The rules are often deliberately written with loopholes that contestants are encouraged to find and abuse.<ref>{{cite web |titlename=guidelines.txt |url=https://www.ioccc.org/2011/guidelines.txt |website=ioccc.org |access-date=10 August 2021 |quote=We do realize that there are holes in the rules, and invite entries to attempt to exploit them. We will award 'worst abuse of the rules' and then plug the hole next year.}}</ref> Entries that take advantage of loopholes can cause the rules for the following year's contest to be adjusted.<ref>{{cite web |titlename=guidelines.txt |url=https://www.ioccc.org/2011/guidelines.txt |website=ioccc.org |access-date=10 August 2021 |quote=We do realize that there are holes in the rules, and invite entries to attempt to exploit them. We will award 'worst abuse of the rules' and then plug the hole next year.}}</ref>

==Obfuscations employed==

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