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Some high level programming (this doesn't apply to most scripts) require an header that do not really affect the code - in a golfing context - and are unnecessary. Should this part of the code be removed and not counted when posting answers? This is some form of "characters pollution" in the context of golfing that adds an handicap to those languages and if the answer is short can increase the code size up to 50%.

Heres an exemple in C of a main() to demonstrate what i'm talking about:

int main(){
    return 0;
}

In C you start with an handicap of 21 characters. In Java, it's even worse:

public class J{
    public static void main(String[] a){
    }
}

It's 53 characters of handicap.

My question/suggestion is this: should we remove headers from code?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think things like this should be up to the asker of each question. \$\endgroup\$ – Οurous Aug 7 '14 at 22:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ duplicate of meta.codegolf.stackexchange.com/q/185/15599. Try searching for "handicap" \$\endgroup\$ – Level River St Aug 7 '14 at 23:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also, GCC (for Linux, but available for Windows via Cygwin) lets you write a C program as just main(){} and declare integer variables without int \$\endgroup\$ – Level River St Aug 7 '14 at 23:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ Note also that it is often the function that is requested, not the program, because some questioners understand the handicap. \$\endgroup\$ – Kyle Kanos Aug 8 '14 at 2:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KyleKanos I usually don't require full programs in golfing challenges because of the verbosity in say, Java or C++. \$\endgroup\$ – Isiah Meadows Aug 10 '14 at 3:45

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