Copyright (c) 1987, Landon Curt Noll & Larry Bassel. All Rights Reserved. Permission for personal, educational or non-profit use is granted provided this this copyright and notice are included in its entirety and remains unaltered. All other uses must receive prior permission in writing from both Landon Curt Noll and Larry Bassel. WARNING: The rules and mailing address for the contest change from year to year. Be sure that you consult the current set of rules before submitting entries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: 4th International Obfuscated C Code Contest Rules Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.unix.wizards Keywords: rules,1987,obfuscate,contest GOALS OF THE CONTEST: * To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program under the rules below. * To show what should NOT be done in C programs. * To provide a safe forum for poor C code. :-) RULES: 1) The source must be 1024 characters long or less. NO EXCEPTIONS! 2) To help us process your entries, we ask that you submit entries in the following format: (please include the --- lines) ---start of header items--- name: org: email address: postal address: environment: remarks: ---start of entry--- X X X X X X ---end of entry--- 3) Regarding the header items: * All header items except 'remark' are optional. If you do not wish to answer an item, indicate so by the string: ***NONE*** Any text outside of the above format will be kept confidential. * You can remain anonymous. If the name item is: ***ANONYMOUS*** all items except the 'remarks' item will not be relased. * Indicate the name of your Company or School in the 'org' item. * The 'email address' item asks for a network path from a major site (such as amdahl) to your mailbox. * If you give a 'postal address', please include your Country. * Give the machine and operating system (i.e., Unix version) on which your program ran. * The 'remarks' item is not optional. Please indicate: - how to execute or compile if something special is required - type of input or argument needed, if applicable - what this program does - any other remarks you wish to make * If you need more than one line on a header item, place tab or space characters at the beginning of each additional line. 4) The entry should be written in a common C. (K&R + common extensions) 5) The program must be of original work. All programs must be in the public domain. All copyrighted programs will be rejected. 6) Entries must be received before 30-May-87 0:00 GMT. Email your entries to: ...!amdahl!obfuscate Amdahl talks to hplabs, decwrl, pyramid, seismo and cbosgd. We will attempt to email a confirmation of receipt of contest entries, however since email is not reliable you may not receive it. People are encouraged to submit entries via email, however one may mail entries the following postal address: Landon Curt Noll Amdahl Corp. 1250 E. Arques Ave. M/S 316 P.O. Box 3470 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3470 U.S.A. Write the words: "International Obfuscated C Code Contest" near the bottom left corner of the envelope. 8) Contest entries sent in by post should indicate where TAB characters are to be placed, otherwise space characters will be assumed. Each line will be assumed to contain a newline character. The leading 'X' will serve to indicate where each source line starts. 9) Each person may submit up to 5 entries. Multiple entries must be sent in separate emails or postal envelopes. 10) People are encouraged to examine winners of the previous contests. A copy of these entries was posted to mod.sources on or about 12-Mar-87. Contact the mod.sources moderator if you missed that article. Keep in mind that rules change from year to year, so some winning entries may not be valid entries this year. Also what was unique and novel one year can get 'old' the next year. ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS: * First announcement will be at the Summer 87 Usenix BOF. * An announcement will be posted to mod.announce near mid June 1987 stating to which newsgroup the winners have been posted. * An article containing the winning entries will be published in a future issue of the "Micro/Systems Journal". * Winners receive international fame and flames! :-) JUDGING: Awards will be given to the best entry in a number of categories. The actual category list will vary depending on the types of entries we receive. At the moment, we are considering using the following: * The best small one line program * The most obscure algorithm * The worst abuse of the C preprocessor (note warnings below) * The strangest source layout * The most useful obfuscated program * Extra points will be given for programs which: * pass lint without complaint * do something quasi-interesting * are portable * are unique in their obfuscation style * are concise Points will be taken away for programs that: * are very hardware or Unix version specific * dump core or have compiler warnings (we won't take points away if you warn us in the remark item) * fail to compile * obfuscate only by overuse of #defines (you should do this ONLY if your use is unusual) * are similar to previous winners * are similar to previous losers :-) The Judging will be done by Landon Noll and Larry Bassel. Comments & questions (not entries) about the contest can be emailed to: ...!amdahl!judges chongo /\cc/\ Larry Bassel