Perl Golf Apocalypse (PGA) 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 (with 2 and 1 points for runnners-up). 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.
Famous quotes containing the words golf and/or apocalypse:
“Did I make you go insane?
Did I turn up your earphone and let a siren drive through?
Did I open the door for the mustached psychiatrist
who dragged you out like a golf cart?
Did I make you go insane?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The war was won on both sides: by the Vietnamese on the ground, by the Americans in the electronic mental space. And if the one side won an ideological and political victory, the other made Apocalypse Now and that has gone right around the world.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)