IOCCC image by Matt Zucker

The International Obfuscated C Code Contest

1985/sicherman - Worst abuse of the C preprocessor

rot13 with strange #defs that create comment headers etc.

Author:

To build:

    make all

There is another version that can be compiled in case the first fails. See Alternate code below for more details on it.

To use:

    ./sicherman < file

    echo foo | ./sicherman

    ./sicherman
    # type or paste some text, making sure to hit enter after each line typed

Try:

    ./try.sh

Alternate code:

The sicherman.alt.c is a slight change in the fixed version (fixed so it does not require -traditional-cpp) in that it has two args to main() as some compilers object to certain number of args in main().

Alternate build:

    make alt

Alternate use:

    ./sicherman.alt < file

Alternate try:

    ./try.alt.sh

Judges’ remarks:

This program abuses the C preprocessor so much that some cpps fail to strip out all of the comments on the first pass! If you were able to understand Dave Decot’s entry in 1984, you will have a head start on this one.

Be sure to run this program through lint! If your lint works correctly, it should warn you that the argument ‘Manual’ isn’t used. Like the program says, what’s that mean?

Run the program without arguments and enter the letters ‘a’ through ‘m’ on a line. Now enter the letters ‘n’ through ‘z’. But to borrow a quote from Richard Stallman: If you think you understand what this code does, then you don’t, so read it again! Explain why:

    ./sicherman < sicherman.c | ./sicherman | diff - ./sicherman.c

results in diff reporting a difference on some machines.

Author’s remarks:

No remarks were provided by the author.

Inventory for 1985/sicherman

Primary files

Secondary files


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