From: jgm@cs.brown.edu (Jonathan Monsarrat)
Subject: Obfuscated PostScript contest (2nd posting)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 00:05:48 GMT

This is the second and last posting before the contest ends on Sunday.

-Jon

------------------------------

                1st International obFUsCaTeD POsTsCripT Contest 
                           1993 Rules for the Contest 
                     Jonathan Monsarrat (jgm@cs.brown.edu) 
                         Alena Lacova (alena@nikhef.nl) 

    1 What it is 

    A  contest of  programming skills  and  knowledge, exclusively  for the 
    PostScript programming language. Its purpose: 

    * To spread knowledge of PostScript and its details. 

    * To applaud those with the best tricks. 

    * To prove  that humans can  beat those damnable  machine generators at 
      their own game by writing  the most obscure and mysterious PostScript 
      programs ever. 

    Winners will receive the fame and attention that goes with having their 
    program entry posted as a winner to programmers world-wide. 

    Please forward these rules to anyone you know who may be interested. 

    A  fancy PostScript  version  of these  rules  is available  by  ftp as 
    ``wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript/rules.ps''. 

    2 How to Enter 

    Write a program in PostScript that does something special and shows off 
    an  interesting quirk  of the  language or  displays a  special effect. 
    Almost anything  is allowed! Write  something creative  that will catch 
    the attention  of the judges.  Your job  is not only  to make something 
    special, but  to obscure  the meaning  of your  entry by  using obscure 
    techniques.  The people  who  read your  program  shouldn't be  able to 
    figure out how it does what it does. (Yes, it must do something.) 

    * Do not use a drawing program  like MacDraw. Your contest entry cannot 
      be machine-generated in any way. 

    * Your  entry  can be  as  large  as 5000  bytes.  However,  quality is 
      considered far more important than quantity. Entries that are smaller 
      than 1500 bytes and still do something are considered impressive.
      Your entry may be multiple files totalling less than this byte limit. 

    * Don't forget to give a filename for your program. 

    * Your contest  entry should  run on GhostScript  2.5.2 so  that a wide 
      variety of PostScript users may view your entry if it wins. This rule 
      may   relunctantly  be   broken  if  necessary   to  the  interesting 
      functionality  of your  program.  GhostScript is  a  freely available 
      PostScript interpreter. You may get it from anonymous 
      ftp    to  ftp.cs.wisc.edu:/pub/X/ghostscript-*2.5.2*.   Your  system 
      administrator will be able to tell you how to use ftp. 

    * Your PostScript code should  be as portable as  possible so that many 
      people can  enjoy running  your program  if you  win. Do  not use any 
      commands  that are  not  part of  the  PostScript language  (like the 
      GhostScript additional commands). 

    * Your program must be original. 

    * You may not submit more than twelve entries. 

    * Don't use PostScript 2 commands unless  they are an important part of 
      your entry. 

    3 Documentation 

    Not writing documentation will increase  the obscureness of your entry. 
    Good for you! However,  you may wish to  document anything special your 
    program  does  that  is  so  obscure  that  the  judges  might  miss it 
    completely. 

    If there is  some special hardware that  you rely on,  or if the device 
    size or resolution  are an important  part of your  entry, that must be 
    documented. 

    4 Where to Send It 

    Send your entry to Jonathan Monsarrat by email to jgm@cs.brown.edu. 
    If you don't have email, use this address: 

    Jonathan Monsarrat 
    14 Danforth Street 
    Rehoboth Massachusetts 02769 U.S.A. 

    Jon's phone number in the U.S.A. is (401) 863-7695. 

    We   welcome  your  suggestions!  Please  email  your  suggestions  and 
    questions. 

    5 Categories 

    Entries will be judged  by category, with the  overall winner being the 
    receiver of the  Obfuscated PostScript award.  Only the winning entries 
    of each category will be included in the contest winners archive. 

    Obfuscated PostScript 
      The most  obscure PostScript program.  It does something  in a clever 
      way, and took us forever to figure out (if we did). 

    Best Artwork 
      The best example of art. 

    Most Compact 
      The best example of  very tiny coding. How  much less than 1000 bytes 
      can an interesting program be? 

    Best PostScript 1 
      The best entry that used only PostScript 1 commands. 

    Best Non-Graphics 
      The best entry that did not have a graphical output. 

    Best Interactive Program 
      The best entry that you type  interactive commands to with an on-line 
      interpreter. 

    Most Useful 
      The entry most likely to be of some real use. 
    And anything so unusual and creative that it deserves an award. 

    6 Judging 

    The judges will choose the winners of each category. 

    Alena Lacova  is a system  administrator at NIKHEF  (Institute for High 
    Energy and Nuclear  Physics) in the  Netherlands. She is  the author of 
    The PostScript Chaos  Programs, which draw  Julia sets, Mandelbrot sets 
    and other kinds of fractal functions. 

    Jonathan Monsarrat is a graduate  student from MIT and Brown University 
    in  the  U.S.A. He  is  the  FAQ maintainer  for  the  Usenet newsgroup 
    comp.lang.postscript and the author of The PostScript Zone and LameTeX.

    7 Deadline and Schedule 

    Submissions will be accepted after 12:01 a.m GMT, Sunday November 29th, 
    1992. Your submission must be  postmarked before 11:59 p.m. GMT, Sunday 
    January 10th, 1993.  We must receive  it before 11:59  p.m. GMT, Monday 
    January 11th, 1993. 

    Results will be posted as soon as we have them (probably in a couple of 
    weeks), but no later than Sunday,  January 31st. Results will go out to 
    comp.lang.postscript  (and a  few  well-chosen Usenet  newsgroups), the 
    Compuserve group, and with the Adobe Developer's mailing. Copies of the 
    winning entries will be available by  email and anonymous ftp, and also 
    by surface mail  on computer diskettes for  a small fee  (if there is a 
    demand). 

    This  document was  written with  the LaTeX  language and  formatted by 
    LameTeX, the PostScript hacker's LaTeX. 

    PostScript    is  a   registered  trademark   of  Adobe  Systems, 
    Incorporated. 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.text.desktop