5 ms·

The 21st IOCCC Winners

61 points by dlowe 14y ago

VMG 14y ago
So - where is the code?
- dbaupp 14y ago
  I wondered that too. But in the news section[1] of the front page: The winning source will be released later this year after the winners have reviewed the writeup of their entries. [1]: http://www.ioccc.org/index.html#news http://www.ioccc.org/index.html#news
  - tisme 14y ago
    The whole fun of the ioccc is to go through the code and figure out how it is done. Without the code this is a non-event.
    - pmr_ 14y ago
      Reading the write-up in combination with the code is usually really entertaining. Having the code before that would make it a lot less entertaining. But you are of course right, as long as there is no code, there isn't much to actually see here.
  - auxbuss 14y ago
    "writeup"? Ouch! Ah, it's the The International Obfuscated C Code Contest.
hafabnew 14y ago
The way the site is run really lets the contest down.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Why? How? They have a single page with all the winners ever, and for each C file they also have a hint.text/hint.markdown/hint.html file. They also have a Twitter feed. What's so bad about that?
  - sltkr 14y ago
    The problem is they haven't published the winning entries. How can I appreciate the achievements of these coders if I can't see/run their code? There isn't even a description of what they've submitted (except for the clue given by the award title).
    - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
      That's because they're still packaging them up and writing hint files and such. They just announce the names first and post the files later.
      - sltkr 14y ago
        I understand, but that's the point: for the audience it's not so interesting to see the results without the winning entries, so to maximize interest, the jury should wait to present the results until they're ready to publish the winning entries too. It's not as if the IOCCC is working on a tight schedule anyway. This is like hearing who won in the Olympics and then watching the games later at night; sure, you can do that, but it's much more exciting the other way around.
        gpvos 14y ago
        At least, it shouldn't be posted to HN when the code is not published yet. As it is now, this doesn't satisfy my intellectual curiosity.
  - hafabnew 14y ago
    Weeeelll: 1) As others have pointed out, the separate release of code/writeup. I wager that most people really just want to see the code. Why bother doing both? If it's just to attract attention, that's a reasonably valid reason -- but it probably has the opposite of the desired effect, people get annoyed that they can't view the code now, and therefore start disliking the contest in general. 2) Even when the code is released, the format they use makes it difficult to actually look at the code. Let's take the 2011 winners for example [1]. One would assume that clicking each entry (e.g., the top entry[2]) would perhaps show the code, perhaps annotated in a useful way... nope! Surely it must link to the code then... nope! Perhaps it links to a page that links to the code... nope! You have to go to the 'Winning Entries' page from the main menu (from [1]), scroll down to the appropriate year, then play a fun game of matching up entrant's surnames to their entries (yes, I know the surname is in the URL of [2]). [ 3) While not a 'real' complaint: the I-just-learned-how-to-use-a-3D-modelling-program logo really is awful. It makes the contest look juvenile, when in fact the quality of the winning entries is very high. The site looks much better without the logo -- try it yourself, delete the img node from the homepage using Inspector/Firebug/whatever. ] In conclusion: show us the code, delete the logo :). [1] http://www.ioccc.org/2011/whowon.html http://www.ioccc.org/2011/whowon.html [2] http://www.ioccc.org/2011/blakely/hint.html http://www.ioccc.org/2011/blakely/hint.html

61 points by dlowe 14y ago

VMG 14y ago

So - where is the code?

dbaupp 14y ago
I wondered that too. But in the news section[1] of the front page: The winning source will be released later this year after the winners have reviewed the writeup of their entries. [1]: http://www.ioccc.org/index.html#news http://www.ioccc.org/index.html#news
- tisme 14y ago
  The whole fun of the ioccc is to go through the code and figure out how it is done. Without the code this is a non-event.
  - pmr_ 14y ago
    Reading the write-up in combination with the code is usually really entertaining. Having the code before that would make it a lot less entertaining. But you are of course right, as long as there is no code, there isn't much to actually see here.
- auxbuss 14y ago
  "writeup"? Ouch! Ah, it's the The International Obfuscated C Code Contest.

hafabnew 14y ago

The way the site is run really lets the contest down.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Why? How? They have a single page with all the winners ever, and for each C file they also have a hint.text/hint.markdown/hint.html file. They also have a Twitter feed. What's so bad about that?
- sltkr 14y ago
  The problem is they haven't published the winning entries. How can I appreciate the achievements of these coders if I can't see/run their code? There isn't even a description of what they've submitted (except for the clue given by the award title).
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    That's because they're still packaging them up and writing hint files and such. They just announce the names first and post the files later.
    - sltkr 14y ago
      I understand, but that's the point: for the audience it's not so interesting to see the results without the winning entries, so to maximize interest, the jury should wait to present the results until they're ready to publish the winning entries too. It's not as if the IOCCC is working on a tight schedule anyway. This is like hearing who won in the Olympics and then watching the games later at night; sure, you can do that, but it's much more exciting the other way around.
      - gpvos 14y ago
        At least, it shouldn't be posted to HN when the code is not published yet. As it is now, this doesn't satisfy my intellectual curiosity.
- hafabnew 14y ago
  Weeeelll: 1) As others have pointed out, the separate release of code/writeup. I wager that most people really just want to see the code. Why bother doing both? If it's just to attract attention, that's a reasonably valid reason -- but it probably has the opposite of the desired effect, people get annoyed that they can't view the code now, and therefore start disliking the contest in general. 2) Even when the code is released, the format they use makes it difficult to actually look at the code. Let's take the 2011 winners for example [1]. One would assume that clicking each entry (e.g., the top entry[2]) would perhaps show the code, perhaps annotated in a useful way... nope! Surely it must link to the code then... nope! Perhaps it links to a page that links to the code... nope! You have to go to the 'Winning Entries' page from the main menu (from [1]), scroll down to the appropriate year, then play a fun game of matching up entrant's surnames to their entries (yes, I know the surname is in the URL of [2]). [ 3) While not a 'real' complaint: the I-just-learned-how-to-use-a-3D-modelling-program logo really is awful. It makes the contest look juvenile, when in fact the quality of the winning entries is very high. The site looks much better without the logo -- try it yourself, delete the img node from the homepage using Inspector/Firebug/whatever. ] In conclusion: show us the code, delete the logo :). [1] http://www.ioccc.org/2011/whowon.html http://www.ioccc.org/2011/whowon.html [2] http://www.ioccc.org/2011/blakely/hint.html http://www.ioccc.org/2011/blakely/hint.html