The most amazing bit of code I've seen

**RhinoBanga** · 28th November 2002

Try compiling this:

#include <stdio.h>

main(t,_,a)
char *a;
{
return!0<t?t<3?main(-79,-13,a+main(-87,1-_,main(-86,0,a+1)+a)):
1,t<_?main(t+1,_,a):3,main(-94,-27+t,a)&&t==2?_<13?
main(2,_+1,"%s %d %d\n"):9:16:t<0?t<-72?main(_,t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#;#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l q#'+d'K#!/+k#;q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;#){nl]!/n{n#'; r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#n'wk nw' iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c ;;{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# }'+}##(!!/")
:t<-50?_==*a?putchar(31[a]):main(-65,_,a+1):main((*a=='/')+t,_,a+1)
:0<t?main(2,2,"%s"):*a=='/'||main(0,main(-61,*a,
"!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry"),a+1);
}

If it doesn't work then use the attached file.

I have tried it on Windows and HPUX/Linux and here's what it produces:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me
three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the eigth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the eigth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
ten lords a-leping,
nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leping,
nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leping,
nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming,
six geese a-laying, five gold rings;
four caalling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a peaar tree.

Now that's what I call an amazing bit of code ... there are some spelling errors ... but who cares.

Anyone have others?

**Mark_1983** · 5th December 2002

Call me dumb but how do you compile that bit of code?

I've tried to compile it in borland and in visual c++ and no joy.

**RhinoBanga** · 6th December 2002

It seems that the new forum still has some quirks ... eg attachments missing and it has parsed the text wrongly.

But basically in VC++ you use the wizard to create a blank console mode application and then add the file to the project.

When the forum is working hunky-dorey I'll update this thread with the code and attachment.

**salvadorescobar** · 6th December 2002

This looks like ANSI c as well. So you should be able to compile it in any C compiler.

**Snake_03** · 17th January 2003

What language is tha? There are to many sytax errors for it to compile, you must be joking.

**RhinoBanga** · 17th January 2003

I'll post the original code later today now that Raptor has fixed attachments.

**RhinoBanga** · 20th January 2003

As promised, here is the code.

I have wrapped it up in an MSDev console app project; but as I said it works on most platforms.

**WTD** · 10th February 2003

Thanks RB, most impressive..

Bollocks to debuging any logic errors in that though

**RhinoBanga** · 11th February 2003

Even after all this time I still haven't managed to figure out how it works :/

**echo7** · 11th March 2003

jdickson was the famous person who created ekk.exe
phagish

**RhinoBanga** · 11th March 2003

All I did was wrap it up.

**RodTerl** · 17th March 2003

Um, Im not sure, Id have to get my little manual on C coding, but I think it may be using pointers to code, using the ASCII values of the text to be created, with the read out being a recursive structure.

I can have a go at writing my own versin, and see what I come up with if anyone wants. 8)

RodTerl

**RodTerl** · 17th March 2003

I believe the recursion bit is correct, but a second glance, at some of the numbers used, I think he may have used ROT13 encryption, also with direct program code access using offsets.

I was brought up on a ZX Spectrum, so Ive seen a small amount of highly efficient code. 8)

RodTerl

**newty** · 21st March 2003

Originally posted by echo7
jdickson was the famous person who created ekk.exe
phagish

The code was actually written by Ian Phillipps for a competition "The International Obfuscated C Contest" in 1988, which he won.

This goals of this contest are :

To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program.
To show the importance of programming style, in an ironic way.
To stress C compilers with unusual code.
To illustrate some of the subtleties of the C language.
To provide a safe forum for poor C code.

Here's a commented disassembly of the code :

http://sigbeer.org/~mike/old/virginia/xmassong/

**RhinoBanga** · 21st March 2003

/me will sleep better at night now!

Thanks for that dude ... cool first post

**RodTerl** · 21st March 2003

Thank you very much for the link. Im just glad I got parts of the thing correct. 8}

RodTerl

Is it better to be one tenth correct, than totally wrong?

8}