TPJ: The 4th Annual Obfuscated Perl Contest | Linux Today

TPJ: The 4th Annual Obfuscated Perl Contest

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jul 26, 1999

“There are four circles of judgement in which you may prove your
worth as a master of deception.”

  1. “The first circle is judged upon the ability to craft a lie
    which commands an infernal computing engine to print the words “The
    Perl Journal” in a human-recognizable form. You may only use one
    thousand glyphs, including the invisible ones, or fewer in the
    completion of this screed.”
  2. “The second circle is judged upon the ability to forge a
    deviousness which commands an infernal computing engine to perform
    some task of extreme might and puissance. Your limit is six hundred
    glyphs, whether visible or not.”
  3. “The third circle is judged upon the ability to create a
    monstrosity which exhibits artistic cunning and creative guile in
    its dread formulation. The limit is one thousand glyphs, including
    those which cannot be discerned by the naked eye.”
  4. “The fourth circle is judged upon the ability to cause your
    fell creation to appear as a chameleon or doppelgänger does:
    as a deceptive imitation of another tongue. You must pick a
    different language and endeavor to make your handiwork fool the eye
    into believing that it was written in that language. For this
    purpose you may select up to two thousand visible or invisible
    sigils.”

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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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