Wasn't able to find a video of the app working, but did find this Javascript port (?), and it seems to roughly match the appearance shown in screenshots:
It's very hard to avoid rolling upside down and I wonder if that's intentional. IRL you can just let go of the controls and most aircraft will be stable and fly close to level
no, it was a thing back in the 90's (and likely earlier.)
The goal was to write a program that was "impossible to read". Some of the winners are seriously creative. And it's very much just smat kids and their machines...
I remember one back in the day which wasn't obfuscated at all. It was clearly a simple utility. Except that it didn't do what you thought it did, it did something completely different. (alas I can't remember the details...)
There are a number of blog posts online and StackOverflow questions explaining IOCCC entries, and they generally seem to be built/obfuscated by hand. It's an art and it's far from trivial, which is one of the reasons why the contest exists :)
On OSX you can install XQuartz and libx11 an then compile it with (assuming you installed libx11 via brew)
After this was posted here in 2017 I made a version in ClojureScript, where you fly over Amsterdam instead of Pittsburg.
http://thegeez.net/2018/04/01/flight.html
Wasn't able to find a video of the app working, but did find this Javascript port (?), and it seems to roughly match the appearance shown in screenshots:
https://xyzzy.github.io/jsFlightSim/README.html
It's very hard to avoid rolling upside down and I wonder if that's intentional. IRL you can just let go of the controls and most aircraft will be stable and fly close to level
A discussion in 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15058723
I’m sure you’ll be making your own scenery files very soon!!!
Does anyone know of a video online demonstrating this app? I've had a look but can only find screenshots
Here you go, https://youtu.be/qvtRfWO_J2M
compiled on my laptop on WSL.
sudo apt install x11-common libx11-dev
make
ran with
cat horizon.sc pittsburgh.sc | ./banks
Amazing, thank you!
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This is a clip from "The Young Ones S02E03", "Have We Got a Video" montage.
Not a video of the program running.
To avoid anyone else wasting a click, this isn't the video
Compile and run it?
How in the world did they come up with the obfuscated code for this? Surely they must be using a tool?
no, it was a thing back in the 90's (and likely earlier.) The goal was to write a program that was "impossible to read". Some of the winners are seriously creative. And it's very much just smat kids and their machines...
I remember one back in the day which wasn't obfuscated at all. It was clearly a simple utility. Except that it didn't do what you thought it did, it did something completely different. (alas I can't remember the details...)
> I remember one back in the day which wasn't obfuscated at all.
Perhaps it was the Underhanded C Contest[1][2]? It's another competition, entires there often seem simple and perform something unexpected.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underhanded_C_Contest
[2]: https://www.underhanded-c.org
There are a number of blog posts online and StackOverflow questions explaining IOCCC entries, and they generally seem to be built/obfuscated by hand. It's an art and it's far from trivial, which is one of the reasons why the contest exists :)
For an example, see this StackOverflow question and its detailed answers for an overview of what obfuscation techniques can be used, although many more exist of course: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15393441/obfuscated-c-co...
I was able to compile it on macOS, but had to include an extra flag to stop clang from being too strict (version 16):
I couldn't find video of it (yt nor elsewhere)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41905010
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Classic!