- Very early C compilers and language (cm.bell-labs.co)
Several years ago, Paul Vixie and Keith Bostic found a DECtape drive, attached it to a VAX, and offered to read old DECtapes. Even at the time, this was an antiquarian pursuit, and it presented an opportunity to mine beneath the raised floor of the computer room and unearth some of the DECtapes we’d stored since the early 1970s. Gradually, I’ve been curating some of this, and here offer some of the artifacts. Unfortunately existing tapes lack interesting things like earliest Unix OS source, but some indicative fossils have been prepared for exhibition.
- The International Obfuscated C Code Contest (ioccc.org)
The IOCCC stands for the International Obfuscated C Code Contest. The IOCCC is a C programming contest. The goals of the IOCCC are: To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program within the rules. 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. :-) To have fun with C!
- IC 342 (Wikipedia)
IC 342 (also known as Caldwell 5) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis, located relatively close to the Milky Way. Despite its size and actual brightness, its location behind dusty areas near the galactic equator makes it difficult to observe, leading to the nickname “The Hidden Galaxy”, though it can readily be detected even with binoculars. If the galaxy were not obscured, it would be visible by naked eye. The dust makes it difficult to determine its precise distance; modern estimates range from about 7 million light-years (Mly) to about 11 Mly. The galaxy was discovered by William Frederick Denning in 1892. It is one of the brightest in the IC 342/Maffei Group, one of the closest galaxy groups to the Local Group. Edwin Hubble first thought it to be in the Local Group, but it was later determined not to be a member.
- The Underhanded C Contest (underhanded-c.org)
The Underhanded C Contest is an annual contest to write innocent-looking C code implementing malicious behavior. In this contest you must write C code that is as readable, clear, innocent and straightforward as possible, and yet it must fail to perform at its apparent function. To be more specific, it should perform some specific underhanded task that will not be detected by examining the source code.
- C (programming language) (Wikipedia)
C (pronounced /ˈsiː/ – like the letter c) is a general-purpose programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and remains very widely used and influential. By design, C’s features cleanly reflect the capabilities of the targeted CPUs. It has found lasting use in operating systems code (especially in kernels), device drivers, and protocol stacks, but its use in application software has been decreasing. C is commonly used on computer architectures that range from the largest supercomputers to the smallest microcontrollers and embedded systems.