This contest is OVER!

The results are now available.

(some old hints have been made available)

Announcment

To make an end to this boring times without contests we proudly announce the

1. Int'l Kaiserslautern Shortest C Contest (KL-ShoCC)

Subject of the Contest

The subject of the contest is to write a program in C, which gets two integer numbers (type int) i1 and i2 as command line parameters. The program has to print all numbers starting with i1 through i2 (including). The first number to be printed is i1, the last is i2. The numbers have to be ordered ascending or descending, depending on which one is greater. Assuming

Examples

  $ foo 1 3
  1
  2
  3
  $ foo 1 -1
  1
  0
  -1

We think the problem itself is not too hard. The program that solves the problem with the constraints given below with the shortest source code wins the contest.

The constraints

Each single character is counted (we use `wc -c' for measurement).
The program has to compile and run under SunOs, Aix and Linux when compiled with `gcc -o foo foo.c' (the choice of the target architecture is due to the jury).
Optionally a function
```
	
	void o(int x);
```
can be used, that prints the value of x on one single line. You can link the object code to your program (`gcc -o foo o.o foo.c'). One possible way to make o.o is by typing
```
	echo 'void o(int i) {
                printf("%d\n", i);
        }' > o.c; gcc -c -o o.o o.c
```
One can not assume that this is done in this way in the very contest concering the internal implementation.
Only ANSI-standard libraries and include files are allowed. You must not use your own libraries or include files. In cases of doubt the decision of the jury is final.
Additional commandline parameters for paths, libraries, optimization or defines(!) etc. are not allowed. Only the two commands given above are allowed for compilation.
The program has to terminate correctly (that is without any SEGVs etc.), if called with correct parameters.
If one or both of the parameters is not an integer number or if the number of parameters is not exactly two, any effect may take place. In this situation even runtime errors are allowed.
The usage of a certain C-"standard" is not necessarily required for the solution; the main subject is to work according to the problem specification without using highly machine dependant features. In cases of doubt the decision of the jury is final.

Prizes

Depending on participation there will be one or more surprise prizes. Eventually the jury submits a `special prize for most obfruscated code' independent of the length of the code.

Jury

The jury consists of Nils Magnus and Peter Conrad. The decisions of the jury are final and cannot be challenged. Direct questions about rules to shocc@unix-ag.uni-kl.de.

Participation

Everyone is entitled to join the contest who is able to send an email with the source code to shocc@unix-ag.uni-kl.de. The body of the email must contain a single tag BEGIN-SHOCC on a seperate line, followed by the source code, followed by an END-SHOCC tag, again on a separate line. Used for the contest are only the lines between the two tags excluding them.

Example

  From: Max User
  To: shocc@unix-ag.uni-kl.de

  Hi thou shoccers,

  eat my submission:

  BEGIN-SHOCC
  void main(int argc, char *argv[])
  {
     o(1);
     o(2);
     o(3);
  }
  END-SHOCC

  P.S.: Unfortunately my submission worx only in certain cases. Is
        that a prob?

  Greetinx, Max.

Submissions must be sent to shocc@unix-ag.uni-kl.de until Wednesday, February 22nd, 1995, 11:59:59 PM MET (that is 10:59 PM GMT, 5:59 PM EST, 2:59 PM PST); incoming timestamps are relevant. Each contestant can participate with exactly one program. In case of multiple submissions only the last valid one is accepted.

The results are computed directly after the deadline and published on Thursday, February 23rd, 1995 6:30 PM MET at the University of Kaiserslautern Regional Computing Center (RHRK), Room DS/1 and on IRC on channel #shocc. The celebration of winners is also done at that time. All participants are also notified by mail and the results are posted to the newsgroups you got this announcementy from.

Hints

If i1 equals i2 the program has to print i1.
A newline character (\n) at the end of the line will be counted in your submission.
o() will not be implemented as a macro. o(x) is free of side-effects.
If the program terminates nicely we do not expect a deterministic return value.
The results of this contest will be emailed to the participants as well as posted to the newsgroups which carried this announcement and, of course, put on the web.

Appendix

Nils' Homepage
Peter's Homepage (german)
UNIX-AG Homepage

Impressum