Tenth International Obfuscated C Code Contest

View the index.html web page for the given winning entry for information on how on how to compile it and how to run the winning program. Look at the winning source and try to figure how it does what it does! You may then wish to look at the Author’s remarks for even more details.

Name and address information are separated from the actual program prior to judging. This eliminates any chance that we would bias our judging for/against any person or group.

This year was the first year that ANSI C was the default. Use of classic K&R C was allowed so long as ANSI C compilers could still compile the entry. If you do not have an ANSI C compiler, you may not be able to compile the entry, sorry!

A few notes regarding future contests:

Be sure to wait until the 1994 rules are posted before submitting entries. Rules differ from year to year, sometimes in significant ways.

In 1994, we will retract the guideline that discouraged the use of C constructs such as 3["curds"]. At one time, certain ANSI compilers did not consider such expressions to be valid ANSI C. Alert readers noted that the current ANSI standard considered them to be valid. We were unable to find an ANSI C compiler that flagged such expressions as errors.

Please send us comments and suggestions what we have expressed above. Also include anything else that you would like to see in future contests. See How to contact the IOCCC for how to provide us with your comments and suggestions today.

For those who appreciate a bit of Internet history, this is how people used to contact the IOCCC in this given year, via Unix to Unix CoPy (UUCP):

…!{sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!judges
judges@toad.com

If you use, distribute or publish these entries in some way, please drop us a line. We enjoy seeing who, where and how the contest is used.

Final Comments

IMPORTANT NOTE: The email addresses found above are for historical purposes only, and should not be used today. See contact.html for up to date contact details as well as details on how to provide fixes to any of the entries. See also the IOCCC FAQ for additional information on the IOCCC.

Credits:

We would like to thank Barbara Frezza for her role as official chef of the contest. Landon Curt Noll and Larry Bassel appreciated the opportunity to serve as official taste testers. And as usual, the food was excellent.

Download all winning entries from 1993

• 1993/ant - Best utility
• 1993/cmills - Bill Gates Award
• 1993/dgibson - Best abuse of the C preprocessor
• 1993/ejb - Best obfuscated algorithm
• 1993/jonth - Most obfuscated X program
• 1993/leo - Best game
• 1993/lmfjyh - Most versatile source
• 1993/plummer - Best one liner
• 1993/rince - Most well rounded
• 1993/schnitzi - Obfuscated Intelligence Award
• 1993/vanb - Most irregular expression

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