Perl Golf Apocalypse
Encyclopedia
Perl Golf Apocalypse is a Perl
coding competition with the objective of solving a basic programming task with the smallest perl code possible. The competition has its roots in the newsgroup comp.lang.perl.misc which had threads where each poster tried to solve a basic problem with shorter code than the previous post. This was called Perl Golf because in both Perl and physical golf
the goal is to finish with the fewest (key)strokes.
A total of 10 teams participate in the competition with up to 3 perl hackers comprising each team. Each team is provided a computer to solve a set of simple problems by writing a short piece of Perl code. The submitted code is then tested and compared to the answers from the other teams. Altogether, the competition has 9 problems (akin to 9 holes in Golf) to solve. Each problem is simultaneously given to the teams and carries a specified time limit for solving. At the completion of first 4 problems the 5 lowest scoring teams are removed from the competition. A team gets 1 point if it correctly solves the problem, 6 more points if it solves with the fewest keystrokes (5 and 4 extra points for the first and second runners up) and 3 more points if it was the earliest to submit. Thus a team can earn a maximum of 10 points on one hole. After all the 9 problems are solved, the teams will be ranked by score from highest to lowest and the highest scoring team is declared the winner.
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
coding competition with the objective of solving a basic programming task with the smallest perl code possible. The competition has its roots in the newsgroup comp.lang.perl.misc which had threads where each poster tried to solve a basic problem with shorter code than the previous post. This was called Perl Golf because in both Perl and physical golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
the goal is to finish with the fewest (key)strokes.
A total of 10 teams participate in the competition with up to 3 perl hackers comprising each team. Each team is provided a computer to solve a set of simple problems by writing a short piece of Perl code. The submitted code is then tested and compared to the answers from the other teams. Altogether, the competition has 9 problems (akin to 9 holes in Golf) to solve. Each problem is simultaneously given to the teams and carries a specified time limit for solving. At the completion of first 4 problems the 5 lowest scoring teams are removed from the competition. A team gets 1 point if it correctly solves the problem, 6 more points if it solves with the fewest keystrokes (5 and 4 extra points for the first and second runners up) and 3 more points if it was the earliest to submit. Thus a team can earn a maximum of 10 points on one hole. After all the 9 problems are solved, the teams will be ranked by score from highest to lowest and the highest scoring team is declared the winner.