Talk:International Obfuscated C Code Contest

Visual Studio

Article says:

(most notably the otherwise very stable Visual Studio)

I don't want to unlaterally make this edit since it seems POV, but this parenthetical remark is problematic to me. I belive "otherwise very stable" is just factually incorrect; visual C++ (which is what the author must be referring to here, since visual studio is not a compiler) has a large number of known bugs (one could see the workarounds in [boost] for examples). These are mostly in the C++ support, to be fair. Removing "otherwise very stable" makes this a dig against VC++, which I think is POV unless there is some way to verify that this compiler dies the most. Perhaps removing the whole parenthetical is the best move. Brighterorange 05:45, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I've re-written to be NPOV and explain itself a bit better. -- Jon Dowland 30 June 2005 15:03 (UTC)reqallt u have done well

Notable Contributions

Worst abuse of the rules. In several years...

This entry is poorly written. I'd correct it myself, but I'm not sure exactly what it's trying to say. Could someone who knows what this is referring to edit it? 01:25, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Code doesn't work

By the way, if you compile the provided code (or even take it directly from the website itself), it doesn't appear to work. All i get for output is "0.250", which, unless there have been significant changes in mathematics in the past few years, is NOT equal to PI. -(Simulcra 17:34, 2 November 2006 (UTC))

• If I remember correctly, the approximation is not very accurate but gets better for larger circles. — brighterorange (talk) 18:58, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

* OK, I did find what is wrong:
Actualy the programmer thinks "-_" is replaced by "--F<00||--F-OO--;". But gcc replace it by "- -F<00||--F-OO--;".
If you name the source file "r.c", use this: "gcc -E r.c | sed 's/- -/--/g' > r2.c ; gcc -o r2 r2.c"
Now, run "./r2", the result is "3.141".
--Vspaceg 17:27, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

 Interpretation of the program:
 Each first "_" decrement F and OO. Each "-_" decrement only F.
 At the end of "FF_OO" procedure, F contains minus the aproximation of an area of a circle. OO contains minus the diameter.
 The area of a circle is pi * square of radius, so pi = area / (diameter / 2)² = 4 * area / diameter / diameter .
 Pi is aproximated by "4. * -F / OO / OO" .
 --Vspaceg 17:43, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

• Yeah that example should be replaced since it doesn't work with current ANSI C compilers, as is mentioned in the hint that accompanies the code: http://www0.us.ioccc.org/1988/westley.hint (nor does the method suggested on that page make it work either, might be fun to try and figure out how to update it) Rickb235 03:14, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

#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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Error in source

The reference at http://www.ioccc.org/2004/vik2.hint lists a 2.0MHz p4. Smallman12q (talk) 01:20, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

That section of the source in question doesn't seem to be cited in the article anyway, so for the purposes of the article it probably doesn't matter. --ais523 15:21, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Sources

Article is lacking independent sources. Here are book sources mentioning IOCCC, including support for it starting out on USENET.

• Expert C programming: deep C secrets. p. 225. Peter Van der Linden.
• C/C++ treasure chest: a developer's resource kit of C/C++ tools and source code. p. 133. Victor R. Volkman.

--Lexein (talk) 14:14, 1 May 2011 (UTC)