Obfuscated C Contest

   (in full, the `International Obfuscated C Code Contest', or IOCCC) An
   annual  contest  run  since  1984 over Usenet by Landon Curt Noll and
   friends.  The overall winner is whoever produces the most unreadable,
   creative,  and  bizarre (but working) C program; various other prizes
   are   awarded   at   the   judges'   whim.   C's   terse  syntax  and
   macro-preprocessor  facilities  give contestants a lot of maneuvering
   room.  The  winning  programs  often  manage to be simultaneously (a)
   funny,  (b)  breathtaking  works of art, and (c) horrible examples of
   how not to code in C.

   This relatively short and sweet entry might help convey the flavor of
   obfuscated C:

/*
 * HELLO WORLD program
 * by Jack Applin and Robert Heckendorn, 1985
 * (Note: depends on being able to modify elements of argv[],
 * which is not guaranteed by ANSI and often not possible.)
 */
main(v,c)char**c;{for(v[c++]="Hello, world!\n)";
(!!c)[*c]&&(v--||--c&&execlp(*c,*c,c[!!c]+!!c,!c));
**c=!c)write(!!*c,*c,!!**c);}

   Here's another good one:

/*
 * Program to compute an approximation of pi
 * by Brian Westley, 1988
 * (requires pcc macro concatenation; try gcc -traditional-cpp)
 */

#define _ -F<00||--F-OO--;
int F=00,OO=00;
main(){F_OO();printf("%1.3f\n",4.*-F/OO/OO);}F_OO()
{
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}

   Note  that  this  program  works  by computing its own area. For more
   digits, write a bigger program. See also {hello world}.

   The IOCCC has an official home page at http://www.ioccc.org/.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {crunch}]