Consider referencing SUS instead of POSIX in future documentation.

[SirWumpus]

While I am a great believer in POSIX.1 and .2 standards (intersection of BSD & SysV), XOpen came along to muddy the waters to document standardise the union of BSD and SysV APIs. This later became the Single Unix Specification, essentially POSIX plus Curses with lots of extra dangly bits.

Q: Should future Contest Rules and Guidelines refer to SUS 2018 instead of POSIX?

One reason for this is simply the availability of the Online Base Spec (& download) and Curses Issue 7 that can be consulted by contestants (vs their OS man pages that might be divergent). Kinda nice to play with the same round peg in square hole.

[lcn2]

Interning concept, @SirWumpus.

When we use the term POSIX in the guidelines, we use POSIX-like or we use P1003.1/P1003.2. We do not specify a particular standard version or standard date.

The problem with using SUS 2018 is that few systems that are registered as being in compliance. At best going back to UNIX 03 would yield a few more registered UNIX systems.

Perhaps IOCCC should just refer the term Single UNIX Specification-like and point to the Wikipedia page and let people find their own standards documents if the feel the need to look up something in greater detail?

[SirWumpus]

This FAQ may have <scotish accent>great tracks of land</> on offer.

[SirWumpus]

Humour aside. I can see that you don't want to necessarily limit contestant creativity. Yet do you need a separate FAQ? The Guidelines are already somewhat a Rationale and FAQ about the Rules. Now an FAQ about the Guidelines and the Rules?

[lcn2]

Humour aside. I can see that you don't want to necessarily limit contestant creativity. Yet do you need a separate FAQ? The Guidelines are already somewhat a Rationale and FAQ about the Rules. Now an FAQ about the Guidelines and the Rules?

The new FAQ is a set generic frequently asked questions relating to the overall contest. They are not specific to a single contest. They provide background information to the curious.

Rules and guidelines are specific to a contest. They can stand on their own. While the rules and guidelines can have external links to stuff, such external links are for illustrative and auxiliary purposes only. The text that the rules and guidelines contain is what matters.

[lcn2]

We are still thinking of how to incorporate the pending rules, guidelines into the web site.

[SirWumpus]

Enjoy your twinning tea.

Is there any point changing the Rules & Guidelines document format? Maybe as a .pdf file that has a background watermark like UNOFFICIAL , This is NOT a secret (yet). , Rule 6, This watermark was left by Chongo's Twinnings tea mug. or similar Python-esque nonsense.

Also don't you normally keep a copy of the R&G with each year? Depending how you layout the archive of past winners for public viewing, create a place holder year directory, eg. "Examples" or "Future" - with the next set (working copy) of unofficial R&G and other stuff subject to change.

[lcn2]

Just an a FYI / Update @SirWumpus:

The new web site will have a next directory with a next/rules.html and a next/guidelines.html pages.

Right now, they are just copies of the 2020 set. However as soon as the web site design settles down, we plan to update those 2 pages to incorporate suggestions, such the general idea of this suggestion.

This will also make it easier for people to comment on and make suggested changes to the IOCCC Rules and Guidelines for the next ICOCC.

In regards to this Discussion specifically:

I general, we plan to more away from explicit POSIX and instead consider the Single UNIX Specification such as perhaps The Single UNIX Specification Version 4.

[lcn2]

FYI @SirWumpus, "FAQ 0.4: What platform should I assume for my entry?" now refers to SUS on the experimental IOCCC temp-test-ioccc web site.

[SirWumpus]

Acceptable solution.

[lcn2]

Acceptable solution.

There will be a mention in the guidelines as well.