I'm bored of competitions and awards where someone always wins. It should be okay if there's no champion this year, as all the teams performed on par with each other.
In the OCCC, participating entrants are given a task to write a program for (compile hailstone numbers, compute mersenne primes, sort a database of names reverse-alpha, etc) and only a text editor with no built-in syntax checking, color coding or anything. (the EXTREME version involves entrants only receiving pencil and paper, and in some cases, no eraser).
Whether or not the users have access to an internet connection can also be a parameter -- but would have to be carefully monitored to prevent test-compiling or code-checking elsewhere. It might be okay if someone is looking up the syntax to a particular function, but it would not be okay for someone to ssh into their home computer and compile their code there.
Entrants must code to a time deadline, at which point, their code will be compiled for the first and only time. Any bugs, lack of functionality or compile errors mean instant loss.
Should more than one entrant (teams of people are allowed) actually succeed in writing a working program, the software will be judged according to specs based on the type of program (speed could be foremost for number factoring, memory usage might be foremost for the embedded version of the competition.)
Obviously, the compiler and version will be listed well in advance of the competition. I picture this competition being for C, at least at first, though after it gains massive popularity and overthrows 'dancing with the stars', I imagine that spin-offs will occur, some might even involve interpreters instead of compilers.
I imagine that, at least for the first few competitions, there will be no winners, and this is okay! the prize money will carry over to the next competition.-- ericscottf, Dec 16 2009 Along similar lines http://www.25lines.com/What's the best Flash program that can be written in 25 lines or less? I'm guessing that PacMan took 25 fairly long lines.... [wagster, Dec 16 2009] I'm guessing having anybody over 40 enter is considered cheating.-- FlyingToaster, Dec 16 2009 // op-codes that could be typed in //
<Python>
Op-codes ? You had a symbolic assembler ? LUXURY ! We never had op-codes, only a Hex monitor and coding sheets ..
</Python>
<Waits for someone to start on about Octal and the PDP-4 front panel switches>-- 8th of 7, Dec 16 2009 panel switches ? you had panel switches ? we had to code the cores using magnets.
I entered a speed contest with some yoicks for some random programming problem; count the number of discrete words in a vat of text... everybody was using C(+(+)), Python, Java, etc.
I used CoBOL. Stop laughing. I won... ...by almost an entire order of magnitude.
Then they decided I was cheating 'cuz I used inline assembly for some of the sticky bits.
<hmmph>
[ ]-- FlyingToaster, Dec 16 2009 I like this. I started to learn Z80 machine code, but it well and truly defeated me so I stuck with Sinclair Basic which taught me how to write terrible code. I've just spent two years in OO rehab and am now told that I'm largely fixed.
There's a similar sort of competition you might like (link).-- wagster, Dec 16 2009 // anybody over 40 //
.... or some individuals with Asperger's syndrome.-- 8th of 7, Dec 16 2009 We used t' 'ave t' toggle t' RIM loader into t' PDP-8 WITH US TEETH, wi' t' blindfold on.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Dec 16 2009 RIM Loader, you were lucky!
We had to repair the brass cogs on our difference engine with a bronze widget ...-- Aristotle, Dec 16 2009 When I first started coding, we used only ones and zeroes -- and there was a shortage of ones!-- krelnik, Dec 16 2009 You had ones?! - luxury.-- hippo, Dec 16 2009 You had differential equations? Back in my day, we had to make do with infinitesimals.-- goldbb, Dec 16 2009 Infinitessimals? Feh! Ghost of a vanished quantity. In *my* day we still had some respect for Zeno. Try coding up an accounts receivable program when MOTION IS IMPOSSIBLE.-- mouseposture, Dec 17 2009 //Ghost of a vanished quantity// <marked-for-something>-- FlyingToaster, Dec 17 2009 The junior version of this idea is to be told a rude word and to have to type the numbers into a pocket calculator such that the rude word is spelt out when the calculator display is viewed upside-down - and of course, to get it right, first time, with no checking.-- hippo, Dec 17 2009 we used to do this... the prize was "getting a paycheque".
"Thanks I'll have a gin & Geritol on the rocks; what! you call that ice ? Let me tell you, in my day we had ice..."-- FlyingToaster, Dec 17 2009 here's one of my favorite DrDobbs challenges -- write the shortest self replicating program (i.e. program that outputs its own source). You can pick the language, compiler or interpreter environment.-- theircompetitor, Dec 17 2009 We choose Forth ...-- 8th of 7, Dec 17 2009 [+] Nice. I wouldn't stand a chance. Abbreviate it "1CCC"? "OCCC" is going to be confused with the IOCCC, the International Obfuscated C Code Contest.-- jutta, Dec 17 2009 This isn't nice. This is an abomination.
Of course, as someone that has never had a program compile first time *and* do what it was meant to *and* not be all one giant comment of pseudocode, I might be a tad biased.-- Jinbish, Dec 17 2009 theircompetitor, that's called a quine. Google it and you'll see some amazingly short ones.-- ericscottf, Dec 17 2009 random, halfbakery