The short version
Satirical SIGBOVIK paper testing whether OCR-transcribed paint splatters parse as valid Perl.
From the HackerLinks archive
93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs
Satirical SIGBOVIK paper testing whether OCR-transcribed paint splatters parse as valid Perl.
At a glance:
First seen:2026-10-17
Last seen:2026-10-17
Times seen:1
Website:mcmillen.dev
Why it caught our attention
An explicitly praised paper delivers a concrete, unusual programming rabbit hole.
Where it surfaced on Hacker News
2026-10-17
“There's always this amazing paper:”
marcosdumay · recommendation
Direct HN comment
Yet another way to invoke functions without parentheses