Unlike code drag racing, code golf can be scored independently of the hardware substrate.
(a supercomputer is a device that turns your compute-bound job into io-bound; a mainframe turns io-bound jobs into compute-bound)
(a supercomputer is a device that turns your compute-bound job into io-bound; a mainframe turns io-bound jobs into compute-bound)
Imagine this, given an x86 C/C++/Rust compiler we all agree upon, and a set of inputs we also share, produce a program that counts - say - the median length of the arrays given or something. After which we'll run our programs in a profiler of sorts that tells us 'this program achieved the task in 1,104,687 cumulative instructions' and we'll compete based on that metric.
It wouldn't really matter what processor you use because the target is the same and so is the compiler.
Is what I suggest possible? It'd be a nice conciliation between platform independence and speed measuring.
Don't just laugh, try and tell me why this is not possible for you. This performance golf seems like an interesting idea.
I imagine Ghidra or IDA Pro could be souped up to "referee" pretty reasonably.
I would imagine in-lined assembly could circumvent any kind of compiler restriction (just compile it with an optimized compiler and inline the relevant assembly it produces).