dbacar 2 days ago

This is epic: :)

From : https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/blob/master/2024/kurdyuk...

This code draws the current moon phase to the console. So if you’re a lycanthrope, you can monitor the phase of the moon.

#include <time.h> #include <stdio.h>

        a,b=44,x,
     y,z;main()  {!a
   ?a=2551443,x=    -b
  ,y=2-b,z=((time     (
 0)-592531)%a<<9)/     a
 :putchar(++x>=a?x     =
 -b,y+=4,10:x<0?x=     x
 *x+y*y<b*b?a=1-x,     -
  1:x+1,32:"#."[(     x
   <a*(~z&255)>>    8)
     ^z>>8]),y>  b?0
        :main();}
capitainenemo a day ago

Unfortunate that the redesign broke all links to the old entries (which, since they've been around for decades are on quite a few sites - wikipedia for example) without redirects, and now requires using a javascript capable browser to view the entries on github (github having removed non-JS access last year).

  • connicpu a day ago

    I guess the JS-free way to access would be `git clone`

    • capitainenemo a day ago

      yep. certainly occurred to me. not the most practical if you just wanted to look at a single file, and still breaks the legacy links. BTW, they also made JS required to get the "clone" link off their website, although you can of course guess it most of the time.

      In any case, wasn't using w3m/lynx this time, so just whitelisted the 2 domains github requires.

      • brirec a day ago

        > you can of course guess it most of the time

        In what scenarios is a GitHub clone URL ever different from what one what “guess”?

        I’m genuinely curious — all of the GitHub git clone URLs I’ve encountered were the exact same format. (https://github.com/$user/$repository with an optional “.git” at the end of the URL)

        • dotancohen 12 hours ago

          I remember being annoyed that some project which had its name changed - an action that Github gives much warnings about - still had its clone URL as the former name of the project. This was a while ago, I don't remember the details.

        • capitainenemo 21 hours ago

          Github pages hosted content. But of course that was just a minor digression from the main disappointments WRT their change.

isoprophlex 2 days ago

https://www.ioccc.org/2024/stedolan/index.html

Reading last years entries, this image decompression oneliner outputs its own logo when passed the hash of its source code?! Pretty neat.

  • weinzierl 2 days ago

    I was wondering how the hash thing worked. Got my answer from the notes, which are otherwise hilarious.

    "While terseness was preferred over obscurity, this program hopefully still lives down to IOCCC’s usual standards of clarity."

    • Someone a day ago

      Also:

      “Several variants of this program were considered. Several.”

      (They must have tried billions of variants to find the match on md5sum. Luckily, you don’t have to compile or run the code to find that match)

      • smallerize a day ago

        Since 2009, it has not been that hard to create a collision (where you control both inputs and only care that they end up with the same hash as each other). https://archive.org/details/pocorgtfo14/page/n45/mode/1up After reading this article, scroll up to the top and see that the PDF has its own MD5 hash on the cover.

        • weinzierl 18 hours ago

          I was mostly interested if the solution did that or calculated its own hash on the fly, for example by reading its own source. Thinking about it and considering how short the source is it must have been the former all along, but that was my motivation looking into the notes. I didn't regret it.

  • codethief 2 days ago

    Indeed!

    > By an astonishing coincidence, the number of bits in the input format is approximately the log2 of the number of MD5 evaluations that a five-year-old GPU can do in an hour.

    • bspammer 2 days ago

      I still don't understand how it works, the source code doesn't have any obvious sections to insert data for brute-forcing. I'm as confused as the judges:

      > There are no magic numbers in the program, and bits of the input map to pixels of the output in a regular way, yet it outputs a nice icon for itself, if given the MD5 hash of its own source. How?

      I'm assuming the fact that MD5 is completely broken plays into it somehow...

      • bspammer 2 days ago

        Thinking about it more, I guess you can just change the single-letter variable names and positioning to quite easily get up to a 40 bit brute-force.

      • 0points 2 days ago

        > By an astonishing coincidence, the number of bits in the input format is approximately the log2 of the number of MD5 evaluations that a five-year-old GPU can do in an hour.

        I read this to mean he calculated a matching hash on his GPU, in order to tune the magic constants of his app to produce the desired output.

        > There are no magic numbers in the program

        There are several:

            long z,x,G;main(){for(puts("P1\n80 80"),scanf("%10lx",&G);3-z/2160;x=++z%81/8-5)putchar(5>x?!(16>>(x^-(x<1))+1&G<<5>>z/648*5)^49:10);}
        • bspammer 2 days ago

          Most of those numbers aren't possible to change, 80x80 is the output size, %10 is the input size.

          Changing any of the other numbers would surely impact the function of the program, I don't think you could get to a 40 bit brute-force there.

          I think the brute-force was done by making non-semantic changes like variable names and changing the order of the declarations.

          • addaon a day ago

            > I think the brute-force was done by making non-semantic changes like variable names and changing the order of the declarations.

            Yep. You have 17 bits of entropy just in the names of three single-letter variables.

  • s_dev a day ago

    Same guy wrote jq

  • abcd_f 2 days ago

    In 135 bytes !

    This is right there in the mad scientist territory.

    Incredible, pure bananas.

  • jama211 2 days ago

    Yeah I just read that one, insane!

    • alexey-salmin 2 days ago

      The guy obviously enjoys obscure piping commands, the other one being jq

somat 2 days ago

The entry rules are great. Highly specific in that way you know exactly how they were abused in the past.

    Rule 2
    
    Rule 2 requires that your submission satisfy BOTH Rule 2a AND Rule 2b.
    
    You may check your code with respect to Rule 2a and Rule 2b prior to
    submitting your code by giving the filename as a command like
    argument to the iocccsize(1) tool. For example:

    iocccsize prog.c

    The source to iocccsize(1) may be found in the mkiocccentry repo.

    See also the FAQ on “how to further test your submission” for more more thorough testing, including Rule 2.

    See also Rule 2a, Rule 2b, and Rule 17.

    Rule 2a

    The size of your program source should NOT exceed 4993 bytes.

    Rule 2b

    When the filename of your program source is given as a
    command line argument to the latest version of the official
    IOCCC size tool (hereby referred to as iocccsize(1)),
    the value printed should NOT exceed 2503.

    See also Rule 17.
  • Sharlin 2 days ago

    So you are allowed to store 2053 bytes worth of extra data in the filename. That's... surprisingly lenient.

    • GranPC a day ago

      How would you actually read that data back from your program?

      • ashdnazg a day ago

        argv[0]

        • GranPC a day ago

          That would only work assuming the program isn't just compiled to "a.out". I don't think this "loophole" would work at all.

          edit: Nevermind, I misread the original rule.

  • raverbashing 2 days ago

    4993 bytes, I wonder how did they came up with such a specific number

bapak a day ago

You're probably a programmer. This is what your job looks like to everyone except programmers. Pure gibberish.

_kb 2 days ago

For an obfuscation comp, I love the fact they explicitly refer to and do not rewrite "index.html web pages for each winning entry".

  • 4pkjai 2 days ago

    As a noob, this is confusing me.

    • rawling 2 days ago

      Usually web servers can be configured so if you request a directory it will look in that directory for index.html and serve it if it finds it.

      This page explicitly links to name/index.html for each submission rather than just name, an ironic waste of bytes given the subject matter.

adornKey 16 hours ago

4 years pause for the contest. Good to see new results. I keep a copy of this one printed on my desk. Staring at C-code to finally see the 3D-Image is kind of relaxing.

https://www.ioccc.org/2001/herrmann2/index.html

(It's an ASCII 3D-Image generator - and the code itself is a 3D-Image)

  char*d,A[9876];char*d,A[9876];char*d,A[9876];char*d,A[9876];char*d,A[9876];char
  e;b;*ad,a,c;  te;b;*ad,a,c;  te;*ad,a,c;  w,te;*ad,a,  w,te;*ad,and,  w,te;*ad,
  r,T; wri; ;*h; r,T; wri; ;*h; r; wri; ;*h;_, r; wri;*h;_, r; wri;*har;_, r; wri
    ;on; ;l ;i(V)  ;on; ;l ;i(V)  ;o ;l ;mai(V)  ;o  ;mai(n,V)    ;main (n,V)    
     {-!har  ;      {-!har  ;      {har  =A;      {h  =A;ad        =A;read       
  (0,&e,o||n -- +(0,&e,o||n -- +(0,&o||n ,o-- +(0,&on ,o-4,- +(0,n ,o-=94,- +(0,n
  ,l=b=8,!( te-*A,l=b=8,!( te-*A,l=b,!( time-*A,l=b, time)|-*A,l= time(0)|-*A,l= 
  ~l),srand  (l),~l),srand  (l),~l),and  ,!(l),~l),a  ,!(A,l),~l)  ,!(d=A,l),~l) 
  ,b))&&+((A + te,b))&&+((A + te,b))+((A -A+ te,b))+A -A+ (&te,b+A -A+(* (&te,b+A
  )=+ +95>e?(*& c)=+ +95>e?(*& c) +95>e?(*& _*c) +95>(*& _*c) +95>(*&r= _*c) +95>
  5,r+e-r +_:2-195,r+e-r +_:2-195+e-r +_:2-1<-95+e-r +_-1<-95+e-r ++?_-1<-95+e-r 
  |(d==d),!n ?*d||(d==d),!n ?*d||(d==d),!n ?*d||(d==d),!n ?*d||(d==d),!n ?*d||(d=
   *( (char**)+V+ *( (char)+V+ *( (c),har)+V+  (c),har)+ (V+  (c),r)+ (V+  (  c),
  +0,*d-7 ) -r+8)+0,*d-7 -r+8)+0,*d-c:7 -r+80,*d-c:7 -r+7:80,*d-7 -r+7:80,*d++-7 
  +7+! r: and%9- +7+! rand%9-85 +7+! rand%95 +7+!!  rand%95 +7+  rand()%95 +7+  r
  -(r+o):(+w,_+ A-(r+o)+w,_+*( A-(r+o)+w,_+ A-(r=e+o)+w,_+ A-(r+o)+wri,_+ A-(r+o)
  +(o)+b)),!write+(o)+b,!wri,(te+(o)+b,!write+(o=_)+b,!write+(o)+b,!((write+(o)+b
  -b+*h)(1,A+b,!!-b+*h),A+b,((!!-b+*h),A+b,!!-b+((*h),A+b,!!-b+*h),A-++b,!!-b+*h)
  , a >T^l,( o-95, a >T,( o-=+95, a >T,( o-95, a)) >T,( o-95, a >T,(w? o-95, a >T
  ++  &&r:b<<2+a ++  &&b<<2+a+w ++  &&b<<2+w ++  ) &&b<<2+w ++  &&b<<((2+w ++  &&
  !main(n*n,V) , !main(n,V) , !main(+-n,V) ,main(+-n,V) ) ,main(n,V) ) ,main),(n,
  l)),w= +T-->o +l)),w= +T>o +l)),w=o+ +T>o +l,w=o+ +T>o;{ +l,w=o+T>o;{ +l,w &=o+
  !a;}return _+= !a;}return _+= !a;}return _+= !a;}return _+= !a;}return _+= !a;}
sureglymop a day ago

This one is so cool: https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/tree/master/2024/macke

> This is an emulator capable of running a full modern Linux system with a minimal set of features.

  • s-macke a day ago

    Author here. Yes, it runs a modern Linux from a 1.6MB binary. I did everything possible to make it as small as I could. It even compiles into WebAssembly and runs in the browser.

    • gavinray 9 hours ago

        > A full-fledged C64 emulator is included. 
      
      You really outdid yourself, didn't you?
maxmcd a day ago
  • sparkie 14 hours ago

    Indeed. Even when you see the hidden unicode it's still not obvious what's going on.

    The "salmon" string is mostly unicode TAG characters[1] which contains the printed string followed by 2 En Quad[2], which not so obviously has the effect that `putchar` returns 0 when given as it's argument. Then the defines aren't what they seem, and the body of main is never executed because it's surrounded by a while loop where the condition is 0 (due to putchar() with en quad).

    [1]:https://unicodeplus.com/block/E0000

    [2]:https://unicodeplus.com/U+2000

theletterf 2 days ago

Ah, obfuscated code, the mark of a genuinely human developer. :-)

dogman1050 a day ago

Ah yes, brings to mind a new engineer we hired in the early 90's with with an excellent academic record from a fine school introducing himself to the team by emailing everyone an obfuscated one-liner C program that did something cute. Several members of the team responded to him with lists of ways in which his program violated our recently create style guide. We were a fun group.

VoidWhisperer 2 days ago

It would appear that someone forget to add something before putting the page up... part way down the page is 'XXX-add-show-URL-here-XXX' referring to a youtube livestream vod for the announcement of the winners

Edit: Before posting this, I looked to see if there was a repository I could contribute to to fix it, but I can't find one

Retr0id a day ago

Aaaaaaa, I always learn of these after they've happened. I've wanted to enter for a long time.

earnestinger a day ago

I’m stll waiting for the revival of the cousin, underhanded c contest.

deater a day ago

my plan to rick-roll every major coding competition continues apace. muahahaha

I actually had another entry that I felt had much more clever coding that did some nice sixel animations but from what I understand there were many entries also doing that this year

ForOldHack 2 days ago

Thank you Barry Kerchival, My C programming teacher for sharing obfuscated code, and showing us utter abuse of the C pre-processor. "This does not do what you think it does."

"Recalcitrant code."

  • 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2 days ago

    "You could hide a semi truck in 200 lines of C"

    • ForOldHack a day ago

      At the beginning of the semester, we had a question about struct... Armed with the error code,she showed it to Barry. He looked at it, sat down at her machine, and typed a few lines. Compiled it, put the disks for the compiler back in the folder, put the folder and the manual in the box and threw it against the wall above the garbage can, and it landed for a two-pointer. "We will have a new compiler on Monday."

      Thus ended the use of Lattus-C, and Microsoft-C for a least 4 years. We went with Manx-C, and were able to complete all the assignments for that semester.

      He saved the best for later. "Read 'on trusting trust'" which blew all out minds.

      You can hide whole universes inside of a C compiler.

textlapse a day ago

I wonder if there is an LLM competition that can take the obfuscated code and return the unubfuscated/detailed code…

  • thepace a day ago

    Claude gave me this unobfuscated C code for `long z,x,G;main(){for(puts("P1\n80 80"),scanf("%10lx",&G);3-z/2160;x=++z%81/8-5)putchar(5>x?!(16>>(x^-(x<1))+1&G<<5>>z/6485)^49:10);}`:

    #include <stdio.h>

    / * PPM Pattern Generator * * This program generates a 80x80 black and white PPM image based on a * hexadecimal input pattern. The pattern is rendered as ASCII art using * bit manipulation to determine which pixels are on or off. /

    int main() { long pixel_index = 0; // Current pixel being processed (0-6399 for 80x80) long horizontal_offset; // Horizontal position relative to center long hex_pattern; // Input hexadecimal pattern

        // Output PPM header for 80x80 black and white image
        // P1 = ASCII black and white format
        // 80 80 = width and height
        puts("P1\n80 80");
        
        // Read hexadecimal pattern from user (up to 10 hex digits)
        scanf("%10lx", &hex_pattern);
        
        // Process each pixel in the 80x80 image
        // Continue until we've processed all pixels
        // The condition (3 - pixel_index/2160) continues while pixel_index < 6480
        // This accounts for 80x80 = 6400 pixels plus some margin
        for (; 3 - pixel_index/2160; ) {
            
            // Move to next pixel and calculate horizontal offset from center
            pixel_index++;
            horizontal_offset = (pixel_index % 81) / 8 - 5;
            
            // Determine what to output for this pixel
            if (horizontal_offset < 5) {
                // We're in the main pattern area (central region)
                
                // Complex bit manipulation to determine pixel state:
                // 1. Calculate bit position based on horizontal offset
                int bit_pos = (horizontal_offset ^ -(horizontal_offset < 1)) + 1;
                
                // 2. Extract relevant bits from the pattern
                // hex_pattern << 5 shifts the pattern
                // >> (pixel_index/648*5) selects which part of pattern to use based on vertical position
                long pattern_bits = (hex_pattern << 5) >> (pixel_index/648 * 5);
                
                // 3. Check if the specific bit is set
                int bit_is_set = (16 >> bit_pos) & pattern_bits;
                
                // 4. Invert the bit and XOR with '1' (ASCII 49) to get '0' or '1'
                char pixel_char = (!bit_is_set) ^ 49;
                
                putchar(pixel_char);
                
            } else {
                // We're outside the pattern area - output newline
                putchar(10);  // ASCII 10 = newline character
            }
        }
        
        return 0;
    }

    / * USAGE: * Compile: gcc -o pattern_gen pattern_gen.c * Run: ./pattern_gen * Input: Enter a hexadecimal number (e.g., 1234ABCD) * Output: PPM format image data that can be saved to a .pbm file * * EXAMPLE: * ./pattern_gen > output.pbm * Then input: DEADBEEF * * The resulting .pbm file can be viewed with image viewers that support PPM format * or converted to other formats using tools like ImageMagick. */

1vuio0pswjnm7 a day ago

"Sadly, K&C-style C code does not compile well under modern C compilers."

What is K&C

Is this a typo

tzury 18 hours ago

this one is nice, Wordle shaped Wordle program

https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/blob/master/2024/burton/...

  #include <stdarg.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  # include <stdio.h>
  #define J(J) for (\
  _ j=0; j<5; ++j) J;
  #define/*IOCCC*/I \
  \
  \
  \
        _ W,_ O,_ R,_ D,_*L,_*E


   #define A(A  )for(_ j=0;  !o&&j<5&&(k  = t[l][j]);  ++j)A&&++o;
   typedef/* ;  ; */void q;  typedef int  _ ; typedef  char/* */p;
   struct{ p a  [257],b[9][  5],c[5],d[5  ]; _ e,f; }  i;p t[78557
   ][5]; _ s,a  []={ 9,9,9,  10,13,18,27  ,39,55,1,18  ,2,1,1,35,2
   ,19,18,1,52  ,36,35,20,3  ,2,19,18,18  ,69,2,53,1,  52,37,3,20,
   36,19,35,18  ,52,86,2,53  ,70,1,69,38  ,4,21,3,37,  19,36,35,25
   ,10,+17,15,  26,9,11,12,  23,2,06,18,  13,20,22,14  ,1,24,19,21

   ,16,5,7,4,8  ,3},u=' ';_  W(p*a,p*b){  for(p*c=a+5  ;a<c;)*a++=
   *b++;return  0; } _ O(p*  a,p b){ p*c  =a+5; for(;  a<c&&*a-b;)
   ++a; return  a<c?5-(a-c)  :0; } _ R(p  *a, ... ) {  va_list b ;
   va_start(b,  a); vprintf  (a,b); exit  (1); } q D(  p*a){ if (s
   ==sizeof t/  5)R("limit"  " %d\n",s);  p*b=s[t],i,  j; for(i=j=
   0; i<7&&!j;  ++i)if(!(j=  *a==10?i:0)  )*b++=u|* a  ++; j-5||++
   s; } q L(p*  a,_ b){ for  (_ l=0,o=0,  k; l<s; o=0  ){ A(i.c[j]

   &&k-i.c[j])  A(i.a[k])A(  i.d[j]&&!O(  t[l],i.d[j]  ))for(_ f=i
   .e; f--&&!o  ; )A(i.b[f]  [j]==k)if(!  o){ J(o+=t[  l][j]==a[j]
   )o=o==5?b!=  5:0; } o?W(  t[l],t[--s]  ) :++l; } }  _ e(I){ for
   (; O<D; )L[  R++]=E[O+++  D*W];return  R; } q S( _  O,_*l){ for
   (_*s=&a[a[O  ]],*e=a[-~O  ]+s-a[O]; s  <e; ){ _ i=  *s++,j=i&15
   ,k=l[i>>=4]  <l[+j]?k=l[  i],l[i]=l[j  ],l[j]=k:i;  } } _ o(I){
   _ o=0, w=0;  for(; o<D&w  <D; )L[R++]  =E[o+D*W]>=  E[w+D*O]?E[
   o+++D*W]:E[  w +++ D*O];  return e(O,  w,e(W,o,R,D  ,L,E),D,L,E

   ); } q l( _  n,_*f){ for  (_* e=f+26,  i,j; f<e&&*  f>u; f+= i)
   { for(i=1,j  =*f/u; i <n  &&f[i]>>5==  j; )++i;for  (j=0; j <i;
   ++j)f[j] &=  31,f[j]|=a[  f[j]+a[~-9]  ]<<5; S(i,f  ); } } q v(
   _ a,_*w,_*k  ){ o(2,3,o(  0,1,0,a,w,k  ),a,w,k); o  (0,1,0,a+a,
   k,w); l(a,k  ); } p*E(p*  d){ _ l,j,k  =u,b[u] ,c[  k]; p*e[97]
   [5 ]={ 0} ;  for(l=0; l<  k; ++l)c[l]  =l; for(l=0  ; l<s; ++l)
   J(c[t[l][j]  -97]+=k)for  (l= j=7; j<  22; j+=l)S(  l,c+j-l); v

   (l,b,c);for  (l= 0; l<k;  ++l)b[c[l]&  ~-k]=l; for  (k*=3,l= 0;
   l<s; ++l) {  _ i=0; J( i  +=b[t[l][j]  -97])if(i<k  )J(e[i][ j]
   ||(e[i][j]=  t[l],j=4))}  for(l=0; l<  k; ++l)for(  p*b=0,k=j=0
   ; j<5&&(b=e  [l][j]); k=  !++j){ p c[  32]={0} ; d  =*d-120?d:b
   ; if(s>2)J(  k+=++c[b[j]  -97]>1); if  (!k) return  b; } return
   d; } p*r(p*  b){ _ k, l;  for(_ j=k=l  =0; j<5; ++  j) { signed
   char n=b[j]  ,o=b[j-~5]+  ~0x66; (o?i  .b[i.e]:i.c  )[j]=n; !o?

   i.a[n]=!++k  :O(i.d,n)||  (*(o<0?&i.a  [n]:&i.d[i.  f++])=l=n);
   } i.e += !!  l; L(b, k);  return E(""  "xyzzy"); }  _ main(_ n,
   char**v){ p  *j=i .c-97,  *l=j-11; n-  2?R("usage"  ": %s dict"
   "\n",* v):5  ; ; FILE*k=  fopen(*++v,  "r"); if(!k  ) return //
   perror(*v),  1; ; while(  fgets(j, u^  n,k)) D(j);  fclose (k);
   ; ; setbuf(  stdout, 0);  while(~-s){  printf("? "  ); while(~(
   n=getchar()  )&&n-10&&l<  j)*l++=n; l  <j&&R("inp"  "ut: guess"
   " color\n")  ;printf("%"  ".5s\n",r(l  =j+~10)); }  return 0; }
sgt a day ago

The question, ladies and gentlemen, that we're all waiting for; Just how many of this year's IOCCC entries were vibe coded? /s

bcardarella 2 days ago

> Increased submission quantity and quality

So everybody just LLM'd this, right?

  • AlotOfReading 2 days ago

    I didn't find them useful when I wrote my entries. LLMs get confused with code that "looks like" other code, and that intentional misdirection is half the fun of a good IOCCC entry. Plus, the morality filters get annoying once you obfuscate the code. Plugging an unsubmitted entry into Gemini, it refuses to even explain it because it thinks it's malware.

  • s-macke 2 days ago

    LLMs can help you analyze the code, but not write it. Their ability to obfuscate is quite limited and uninspired. The last IOCCC was in 2020, so we've had plenty of time to work on it.

    • dyauspitr 2 days ago

      What do you mean by an LLM can’t write it?

      • Sharlin 2 days ago

        That they're bad at the exact thing this competition is about: writing clever obfuscated code.

        • anonzzzies 2 days ago

          I would go further and say the fine tuning on code, mostly by llms generating for other llms and human sweat shops writing example code to train on is actually to teach the llms the opposite of clever code and obfuscated code. Llms try to create readable, documented code (with different levels of success). When I make them generate terse/obfuscated code, they cannot help themselves by putting too much readable things in there. I asked claude to do the moon phase one and it had the calculation correctn but could not figure out how to draw the ascii moon so it just printed the values, used emojis next to the ascii etc. But when you ask to do it with normal code, it does figure it out.

          • Xant42 2 days ago

            Hello. I can confirm being the person that produced the shows live event and graphics and whatnot that I had a chance to see if any of the llms available could understand the code and beyond some very superficial stuff they more or less completely failed to understand any of the entries this year. Hope you enjoyed the presentation. There will be more to come in the out favorite universe channel in the future that should be fun.

  • Sharlin 2 days ago

    Quantity? Maybe. Quality? Extremely doubtful. But both are much more likely to be simply due to the four-year break.

  • rjh29 2 days ago

    A four year gap since the last contest would explain both of those.

  • andrepd 2 days ago

    > Increased quality

    I think you can answer your own question

  • nurettin 2 days ago

    They said increased quality.

GGByron a day ago

I can't imagine a better argument against using c. Isn't that the obvious, serious takeaway?

  • AlotOfReading a day ago

    You can write similarly obscure code in any language. C is a particularly good language for it, but many of the entries use techniques that are broadly applicable to others.

    • GGByron a day ago

      > "C is a particularly good language for it"

      A particularly good language for writing bad code? Quite the euphemism.

pelagicAustral 2 days ago

I wonder what the future of these competitions is in the era of AI. Same for the Advent of Code.

  • Jaxan 2 days ago

    Advent of Code is not really a competition. There is a ranking, but that’s not the point of it.

    • pelagicAustral 2 days ago

      Wouldn't people be competing to be at the top of the ranking? I should think that the Real Madrid participates in La Liga because they want to win and not just flair their way around.

      • AIPedant a day ago

        Advent of Code needs to get rid of that stupid leaderboard and display winning entrants' names alphabetically. It's not even slightly a fair competition, an entire swath of people are out of the running simply because they are too tired at 11pm (or busy with their kids etc) to solve a little puzzle. I think anyone trying to "compete" in AoC needs to reassess their priorities.

        Also, I like reading the "flavor text" about the elves and whatnot. Encouraging people to ignore it seems at odds with the design of AoC.

        • recursive a day ago

          It's OK to compete. And it's on not to. You can ignore the leader board.

      • gsinclair 20 hours ago

        The difference between the AoC leader board and the La Liga table can be measured in many millions of euros.

      • a_dabbler a day ago

        It's more like a marathon, sure you're in a race but people don't really care about your position in it unless you're near the front. Completing it on its own gives a feeling of achievement

  • bashauma a day ago

    these works are really gems, but this type code is very strange, and not useful for standard situation. AI devs will take more "normal and useful" code for learning their products than these "noisy and hard-reading" code.