LassiLanter:

++ nicely stated. The only thing I want to comment on:

But surely: writing regular code does all these things too. So how is the mental process of writing code that belongs buried in deep dark corners different than writing ordinary code? What does obfu do for you? What has it taught you, and how has it made you a better hacker?

I don't believe that writing regular code necessarily does all these things. When you're writing code to solve problems, many times you'll stop learning in a particular direction once you find an idiom that solves your immediate needs. Then, when you encounter a situation where that idiom isn't the best fit, a lot of times you'll rearrange the code to make it fit better. As long as you get the solution, it feels like a fine solution. Only when it takes a lot of time and/or effort to make the idiom fit do you look around for a new idiom.

The problem with writing regular code is twofold: First, you'll spend a *lot* more time with a small toolbox of idioms for your coding. Second, as your toolbox helps define your abilities, it also affects your vision. You can't easily see how restricted you are for making solutions.

So, while you go about writing regular code, you might easily come up with solutions to all the tasks you encounter. But you're missing the opportunity to solve them better. Every second you spend writing code that you don't need to write is wasted. That time could be better spent thinking about the problem, improving your design, or working on the next project.

A horribly contrived example: Suppose in some bizarro universe, multiplication isn't widely known. It's not unheard of, but it's only used by some elite few. So, if you need to know the area of a square of a given height and width, you might write some code like:

my $area = 0;
for my $h (1..$height) {
   $area = $area + $width;
}
[download]

Now, you might be perfectly happy with that. After all, it's simple, it's purpose is clear, and it's a common idiom (remember, we're in bizzaro world). Now you're working on some code written by one of the "elitists". You encounter the code:

my $area = $height * $width;
[download]

You rebel: Sure it's less typing, but it's such an odd looking statement! No-one is going to know what that means when they see it. They're going to have to carry a cheatsheet around with them so they can look it up to remember what the heck it does.

But after working on the codebase with the "elitists", you start to find it a natural idiom, and forget exactly what the fuss was about. Eventually, unknowingly, you become an elitist--but you now call it "being an experienced programmer". Later, when a "noob" comes by, he asks "What the heck is that? Why should I bother learning that? You guys should stop using such wierd code constructs and use stuff that we noobs understand? Why are you overcomplicating things?" (1)

You sigh, and try to explain. Some will get it immediately, some will take a while, some will have to have it beaten into their heads with a cluebat, and some will move into management roles.

Back to the subject at hand: Writing (or studying) obfuscations help you see more dark corners of the language more quickly, and helps you think in new ways. This helps you as a programmer: When you decompose your big problem into small bite-sized pieces, you'll be able to select the "correct" pieces to break the problem into. (I.e., the largest "trivial" chunks you can.) Ultimately, you'll make a better, smaller, more maintainable (but not by newbies) program.

I don't write obfus myself, as I just don't have that much free time (between my son, my job and my myriad other hobbies). But I do take 'em apart sometimes because they're so educational.

...roboticus

Notes: (1) Sound familiar? ;^)

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