2nd Annual Obfuscated Contest Winners

[Landon Noll]

*** OBFUSCATE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***

The following programs were judged good (bad? wierd?) enough to win
awards. This year, rather than trying to rank the programs in order of
obfuscatedness, we gave a single award in each of 4 categories and a
grand prize.

________________________________________________________________________

1. The most obscure program:
(submitted by Lennart Augustsson <seismo!mcvax!enea!chalmers!augustss> )

#define p struct c
#define q struct b
#define h a->a
#define i a->b
#define e i->c
#define o a=(*b->a)(b->b,b->c)
#define s return a;}q*
#define n (d,b)p*b;{q*a;p*c;
#define z(t)(t*)malloc(sizeof(t))
q{int a;p{q*(*a)();int b;p*c;}*b;};q*u n a=z(q);h=d;i=z(p);i->a=u;i->b=d+1;s
v n c=b;do o,b=i;while(!(h%d));i=c;i->a=v;i->b=d;e=b;s
w n o;c=i;i=b;i->a=w;e=z(p);e->a=v;e->b=h;e->c=c;s
t n for(;;)o,main(-h),b=i;}main(b){p*a;if(b>0)a=z(p),h=w,a->c=z(p),a->c->a=u,a->c->b=2,t(0,a);putchar(b?main(b/2),-b%2+'0':10);}

________________________________________________________________________

2. The worst abuse of the C preprocessor:
(submitted by Col. G. L. Sicherman <decvax!sunybcs!colonel> )

#define C_C_(_)~' '&_
#define _C_C(_)('\b'b'\b'>=C_C>'\t'b'\n')
#define C_C _|_
#define b *
#define C /b/
#define V _C_C(
main(C,V)
char **V;
/*	C program. (If you don't
 *	understand it look it
 */	up.) (In the C Manual)
{
	char _,__; 
	while (read(0,&__,1) & write((_=(_=C_C_(__),C)),
	_C_,1)) _=C-V+subr(&V);
}
subr(C)
char *C;
{
	C="Lint says "argument Manual isn't used."  What's that
	mean?"; while (write((read(C_C('"'-'/*"'/*"*/))?__:__-_+
	'\b'b'\b'|((_-52)%('\b'b'\b'+C_C_('\t'b'\n'))+1),1),&_,1));
}

[ This program confused the C preprocessor so badly that it left some
comments in the preprocessed version. Also, lint DID complain that
"argument Manual isn't used". ]

________________________________________________________________________

3. The strangest appearing program:
(submitted by Ed Lycklama <decvax!cca!ima!ism780!ed> )

#define o define
#o ___o write
#o ooo (unsigned)
#o o_o_ 1
#o _o_ char
#o _oo goto
#o _oo_ read
#o o_o for
#o o_ main
#o o__ if
#o oo_ 0
#o _o(_,__,___)(void)___o(_,__,ooo(___))
#o __o (o_o_<<((o_o_<<(o_o_<<o_o_))+(o_o_<<o_o_)))+(o_o_<<(o_o_<<(o_o_<<o_o_)))
o_(){_o_ _=oo_,__,___,____[__o];_oo ______;_____:___=__o-o_o_; _______:
_o(o_o_,____,__=(_-o_o_<___?_-o_o_:___));o_o(;__;_o(o_o_,"\b",o_o_),__--);
_o(o_o_," ",o_o_);o__(--___)_oo _______;_o(o_o_,"\n",o_o_);______:o__(_=_oo_(
oo_,____,__o))_oo _____;}

[it looks like tty noise]

________________________________________________________________________

4. The best "small" program:
(submitted by Jack Applin [with help from Robert Heckendorn]
<hplabs!hp-dcd!jack> )

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);}

________________________________________________________________________

5. The grand prize (most well-rounded in confusion):
(submitted by Carl Shapiro <sdcrdcf!otto!carl> )

#define P(X)j=write(1,X,1)
#define C 39
int M[5000]={2},*u=M,N[5000],R=22,a[4],l[]={0,-1,C-1,-1},m[]={1,-C,-1,C},*b=N,
*d=N,c,e,f,g,i,j,k,s;main(){for(M[i=C*R-1]=24;f|d>=b;){c=M[g=i];i=e;for(s=f=0;
s<4;s++)if((k=m[s]+g)>=0&&k<C*R&&l[s]!=k%C&&(!M[k]||!j&&c>=16!=M[k]>=16))
a[f++]=s;if(f){f=M[e=m[s=a[rand()/(1+2147483647/f)]]+g];j=j<f?f:j;f+=c&-16*!j;
M[g]=c|1<<s;M[*d++=e]=f|1<<(s+2)%4;}else e=d>b++?b[-1]:e;}P(" ");for(s=C;--s;
P("_"))P(" ");for(;P("\n"),R--;P("|"))for(e=C;e--;P("_ "+(*u++/8)%2))
P("| "+(*u/4)%2);}

[As submitted, this program was 3 lines (2 of defines and 1 of code).
To make news/mail/etc. happy we split the last line into 7. Join them
back without the newlines to get the original version]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations to the winners (and anyone else who wasted their time
creating such wierd programs).

For your own enjoyment, you can figure out what these programs do. Or 
if this is too hard, compile and run them! All of these compiled and
ran on the vax. Lint was even happy with most of the entries.

The winning programs may be published in a programming magazine.
The columnist will post further details to the net, if there are any.

Next years contest will be held somewhat earlier in the year so
that the winners will be announced to the summer Usenix's Usenet BOF.

[We will not post or mail the non-winning programs.]
[Although they are more interesting and constructive than most of net.flame]

[It is sad to say that there are programs which are part of UNIX systems
(sh,finger,config,etc.) which are not much easier to understand than
these award winners - and much longer] :-)

>From the obfuscated keyboards of:

chongo <char *grepal="pheep";main(){printf("%s? %s\n",grepal,"grepal");}>
								/\??/\
Larry Bassel (ihnp4!nsc!lab)
-- 
no comment is a comment.