In 1993 the IOCCC also sponsored the International Obsfucated Postscript Contest.

http://web.mit.edu/PostScript/obfuscated-1993/

http://web.mit.edu/PostScript/obfuscated-1993/WINNERS

In PostScript you can redefine all of your operators (even operator for redefining!), and indeed this was often done to make the programs more compact for sending to printers in a shorter amount of time. This made PostScript an optimal language for disturbing levels of obsfucation.

The winner of "Most Obsfucated Artwork" was Takashi Hayakawa's astonishing entry:

    %!OPS-1.0 %%Creator: HAYAKAWA,Takashi<[email protected]>
    /A/copy/p/floor/q/gt/S/add/n/exch/i/index/J/ifelse/r/roll/w/div/H{{loop}stopped
    Y}def/t/and/C/neg/T/dup/h/exp/Y/pop/d/mul/s/cvi/e/sqrt/R/rlineto{load def}H 300
    T translate(V2L&1i2A00053r45hNvQXz&vUX&UOvQXzFJ!FJ!J!O&Y43d9rE3IaN96r63rvx2dcaN
    G&140N7!U&4C577d7!z&&93r6IQO2Z4o3AQYaNlxS2w!!f&nY9wn7wpSps1t1S!D&cjS5o32rS4oS3o
    Z&blxC1SdC9n5dh!I&3STinTinTinY!B&V0R0VRVC0R!N&3A3Axe1nwc!l&993dC99Cc96raN!a&1CD
    E&YYY!F&&vGYx4oGbxSd0nq&3IGbxSGY4Ixwca3AlvvUkbQkdbGYx4ofwnw!&vlx2w13wSb8Z4wS!J!
    c&j1idj2id42rd!X&4I3Ax52r8Ia3A3Ax65rTdCS4iw5o5IxnwTTd32rCST0q&eCST0q&D1!&EYE0!J
    &EYEY0!J0q!x&jd5o32rd4odSS!K&WCVW!Q&31C85d4!k&X&E9!&1!J!v&6A!b&7o!o&1r!j&43r!W)
    {( )T 0 4 3 r put T(/)q{T(9)q{cvn}{s}J}{($)q{[}{]}J}J cvx}forall 270{def}H
    K{K{L setgray moveto B fill}for Y}for showpage

One of the most incredible examples of compactness and obsfucation ever. I have heard that after seeing this entry, the judges were moved to simply end the contest after the first year.

This is what it looks like when printed:

http://i.imgur.com/bvNIH.png

They have also finally released the 2006 winning entries for the first time, so be sure to check those out.

In particular they awarded a "Best one-liner" that year (sykes2) if you want something that'll only take an hour or two to figure out. :) (Shorter if you don't miscount and get thrown off by the distractor like I did...)

It's been a very long time and I'm very glad to see a new IOCCC. I clearly remember the day I read about (and successfully booted) the 2004 "best of the show" entry.

http://www.ioccc.org/years.html#2004_gavin

The linked page says that they'll start accepting submissions on the 1st of December.

... it would be up and running now, but the submit code needs to be fixed (the php code is from 2005) and the server upgraded to use https.

Best news I've ever read on this site.

I love terse code. It's so much easier to learn from.

I wish we could revive an obfuscated sed contest as well.

Awesome news.

As long as we're talking about reviving programming contests, I'd love to see a return of the underhanded c contest (http://underhanded.xcott.com/). The winners tended to do a really nice job of abusing subtle "errors" to accomplish their goal.

I came here to say _exactly_ the same thing. The IOCCC entries are absolutely mind blowing pieces of code (in both senses: they amaze you, and they make your brain explode when you try to understand them)

Here's a list of all entries with a quick summary, for those interested in looking at some past entries:

http://www.ioccc.org/all/summary.txt

http://www.ioccc.org/years-spoiler.html

@gregschlom

Great to know there's others who see things this way.

I wish there was some site that was just for people who hold this sort of view (which I've always thought is really a difficult one to find in what's written about programming in today's print and online publications). Maybe the IOCCC site will take on that role.

After always wondering about the reasons why the IOCCC was discontinued, and surmising the worst, this is like a wish come true.

Have you read Don Libes' book on the IOCCC entries?

Mr. Libes, if you're out there, we may need you to write a new chapter.

The Don Libes book, Obfuscated C and Other Mysteries [0], is a fantastic programming book, among my top ten. I think it's out of print, but Amazon has used copies.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Obfuscated-Other-Mysteries-Don-Libes/d...

> Have you read Don Libes' book on the IOCCC entries?

I haven't, thanks for the suggestion.

Hey, let's continue this discussion over email. My address in in my profile. Shoot me an email and let's talk about obfuscated code. Do you have any plans to submit something for this year's IOCCC?

It wasn't really officially discontinued - the public silence made people assume it was done. Lots of excuses could be made, but it really just comes down to focus, energy and time. If you have any of these to spare, please contact the judges! http://www.ioccc.org/contact.html.

That might well fit on the CodeGolf Stack Exchange site.

(http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/)