Obfuscated Perl Contest

The Obfuscated Perl Contest is a programming contest. Participants range in the programming language Perl wrote a short program whose functionality in the source code in a creative way possible veiled (English: obfuscated ) was. ( This is usually not the goal in programming, but see also: Obfuscator. )

Competitions of this kind, which are organized for other programming languages, are used primarily for entertainment, the programmer involved. The creation, but also the analysis of the functioning of competition entries is usually very instructive; consists - apart from the entertainment value - the value of such competitions for the programmers of the programming.

History

The competition was first proclaimed in 1996 by Felix S. Gallo in the journal The Perl Journal. He found after a year, in 2000, probably for the last time.

Winners were chosen in four categories:

  • The best four-line Signature The winner is the best program whose source code in 4 lines of 76 characters fits ( the size of a Signature).
  • The most powerful program The winner is the program that achieved the greatest effect with the least effort (maximum 1024 bytes).
  • The most creative program The winner is the program with the most amazing combination of concealment and functionality (maximum 2048 bytes ).
  • The best The Perl Journal The winner is the best program that - in the tradition of " Just another Perl hacker " programs - the text "The Perl Journal " outputs (maximum 2048 bytes ).

The entries were judged according to the criteria aesthetics ( the source code ), output ( output on the terminal ) and opacity (in the sense of maximum obfuscation ). Every year is also a contribution from the Best of Show award was given. The winning entries were published in the Perl Journal, however, can only be viewed for a fee in the publishing archives ( see www.tpj.com ).

Example

Nachstehendes program by Mark Jason Dominus, a so-called " JAPH ," won the 2nd prize in the fifth Obfuscated Perl Contest in the category " The best four-line Signature". It produces in unnecessary, but wanted here more complicated, the output " Just another Perl / Unix hacker '. ( A detailed explanation of the operation is available, see Related links. )

@ P = split / /, " URRUU \ C8R. "; @ D = split / /, "\ nrekcah xinu / LREP rehtona tsuJ "; sub p { @ p {" r $ p ", "u $ p "} = (P, P); pipe " r $ p ", "u $ p "; $ p; ( $ q * = 2 ) = $ f = fork; ! map { $ P = $ P [$ f ^ ord ( $ p {$ _ } ) & 6], $ p {$ _ } = / ^ $ P / ix $ P: close $ _ } keys% p} p, p, p, p, p, map { $ p {$ _ } = ~ / ^ [P. ] / && close $ _ }% p; wait until $; ? map { / ^ r / && < $ _ >} % p; $ _ = $ d [$ q]; rand sleep ( 2) if / \ S /; print see also

  • Perl programming language
  • Just another Perl hacker
  • Signature programs
  • International Obfuscated C Code Contest
  • Obfuscator - tool for obfuscation of programs
  • Esoteric programming languages ​​- programming languages ​​that have been designed for maximum concealment
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