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12:00 AM
@EinkornEnchanter In the Q you mean? The "Offered bounties by ..."? Except I'm a passive member.... But as long as I get notified, I'd definitely award the bounty
 
Speaking of Linuxes and USB's, does there exist a linux distrobution that runs of a USB and needs no booting?
 
You should put yourself on the passive members list then
 
The thing is that it's for the same thing, so if it's split, it might not be as clear that there's actually more rep on the line
 
Yeah, I don't know what to do there
 
Or I guess I could just put it on the active list because I do visit occasionally, likely more than once every 60 days
 
12:03 AM
@ZacharyT What do you mean by needs no booting
 
@Phoenix Linux can mount NTFS. What are you talking about?
 
You have to turn your computer on at some point no matter what
 
@ZacharyT puppy
 
@Mendeleev But not the partition that represents your C: drive
I'm not sure why
It just doesn't work
 
12:05 AM
@Phoenix yeah it does. I've done it many times
 
I have two NTFS partitions, one is my C drive, and another is a D drive. Fedora can only see the one that represents my D drive.
@Christopher What does gfys stand for
 
@Phoenix go f**k your self
@Phoenix I don't know what you did. It's always worked for me. What's the error?
 
@Mendeleev y'know, out of context in the "Rooms you're in" bar at the right side of my screen, I thought you were being horribly horribly rude lol
 
@Christopher No hard feelings. I don't even know you (on ppcg). It's been a long time since I was actively active on ppcg
 
Wouldn't it be great fun if someone flagged that?
 
12:08 AM
@ThomasWard heh
 
@Mendeleev NVM I formatted my D drive as FAT
 
@Phoenix WHY.
 
@feersum it'd get declined as noise - we'd end up declining the flag, and we'd get annoyed :p
 
So Linux could see it without magic
 
erm
@Phoenix what OS?
 
12:09 AM
@Justin "actively active"
 
@ThomasWard a modern OS which has a concept of a D: drive
 
Naw, the point is for 10k users to flag it on the context-free message view.
 
There aren't a lot of those
 
@Mendeleev ? Anything wrong with that?
I drop by to upvote low voted answers, and I post answers every now and then.
 
@Phoenix that wasn't my question, i meant what linux distro lol
 
12:11 AM
Fedora
 
@Phoenix dnf install ntfs-3g ; mount -t ntfs /dev/sdxy /mnt
 
@Mendeleev That'd do it, @Phoenix
install ntfs-3g, and done.
i still have to do this for Ubuntu and Debian systems at times...
 
Ubuntu desktop should have it by default
How to mobile chat?
 
@Mendeleev I didn't know about that before, and now my C partition only has Windows system files and programs that only run on Windows on it anyway.
 
@Mendeleev chaotically.
 
12:13 AM
@Phoenix you can convert D: to NTFS now
 
Eh, no real reason to.
 
@Phoenix Max file size limit basically removed. Permissions. Performance. Reliability.
 
Yeah but I don't use Windows at all anymore on that computer. I have a third partition with / on it which is mostly what I use.
The other two partitions have been shrinking over time.
 
@Mendeleev Thanks. Does there exist one without the need for ISO? (Even a linux-based open-source OS at that point)
 
@ZacharyT what? How would that work? NetBoot? You can netboot Arch
 
12:18 AM
@ZacharyT Ubuntu 12 has an exe installer you can run from Windows.
I suppose you could use xtra-pc :P
 
@Phoenix but at that point, it's a fat Puppy
 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Mendeleev You can netboot nearly anything
 
Can you give me a link to that exe installer?
 
@Phoenix not Windows. Not WatOS :P
 
@ZacharyT The current version of Ubuntu is 17. The exe installer is ancient, but if you manage to find it somewhere, you can upgrade later.
> nearly
 
12:21 AM
WatOS? Wat (pun intented) is that?
 
@ZacharyT It's a shitty OS Mendeleev made
Back when his username was Wat
 
... link? ...
 
@ZacharyT my experimental OS built from scratch in C
 
12:23 AM
Ninja'd on your own OS.
 
I'm on an iPhone 4S
O_o
 
This it? http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/wubi.exe
 
Wubi is dead
don't use Wubi.
modern Ubuntu doesn't even work right with it
that's why there's no Wubi disks by default anymore I think
 
Trying to run Linux distro in a very weird way, and if something dead is how to do it, I'll do it.
 
12:25 AM
@ZacharyT virtual machines inside your standard OS not an option?
because seriously, Wubi will break Windows majorly too
(Win8 and up guaranteed to explodify, Win7 sometimes dies))
 
Nope.
Not an option.
 
Wubi is ok if your end goal is to have a functional Ubuntu install with no other qualifications.
 
I'll try that when I have access to that Windows machine again (probably mid-August)
 
do one thing though
backup critical windows stuff first
because it has a HIGH PERCENTAGE CHANCE of torching your Windows
 
My sister wants a pug
 
12:30 AM
Pugs are funny
 
Where did that come from? Puppy Linux brought that to mind?
 
They constantly look like they've smooshed their face into a wall recently.
 
No
 
Well then, that was so random
 
@ThomasWard why
 
12:33 AM
Okay, I don't want to torch that Windows. I might try it on another Windows machine.
 
@Mendeleev I'm not a fan of pugs - they are all very rude to me.
like very rude and evil towards me
 
So, just a personal problem?
 
(I get along with most all dogs except pugs. Just not a fan of them after 20 years of them all hating me)
 
How are they evil and rude towards you?
 
Solution: Get a cat
Or better yet, a guinea pig
 
12:38 AM
Or even better: no pet.
 
Nah man
 
We have fish
 
Fish. Fish. Fish don't count. They're fish.
Any other distro with an exe installer? (Preferably one that won't torch Windows?)
 
@ZacharyT yeah. Virtualbox with Ubuntu in it
 
Not an option.
 
12:41 AM
@ZacharyT why
 
for ... reasons ...
 
Oh
 
@ZacharyT then you're out of options. Off-site VPS with the GUI installed on it, plus VNC over an SSH tunnel to it and you'll have a fully functional GUI Linux
you'll need 1GB+ RAM unless you run something like Lubuntu
though i recommend 2GB RAM even for Lubuntu
 
@ZacharyT this guy is a sysadmin. Listen to him
2
 
^ that. Fully certified too :)
 
12:45 AM
What I was trying to do specifically is something ... er ... weird.
Trying to get an open-source OS to run on Windows with pretty darn restricted privileges, just to see if it's possible to do it (probably not)
 
@ZacharyT it's really not.
 
Kind of figured.
 
the 'restricted' privileges portion is where you just don't give users sudo access
and then they can only access what's shared to them... but with Wubi you sacrifice that kind of restriction (for seeing files, folders, etc.)
the most secure *nix is hardened to prohibit sudo access to users, lock down a lot of administrative functions, etc.
and keep files you DON'T want to share on different systems.
 
@ZacharyT xtra-pc exists
It sounds like your usecase exactly at this point.
 
That ... sounds exactly like what I need ...
except it costs money and is (presumably) closed source, so I'll just stick with Windows on that machine.
 
12:57 AM
I don't think Linux is allowed to be clsoed source
It's licensed under the GPL, right?
 
Link in case I got the wrong one?
 
Yeah, I checked xtra pc is FOSS
 
FOSS?
 
Free Open Source Software
@ZacharyT Out of curiosity, why?
 
Also "Full Option Science System", a company that makes kits for use in elementary school science classrooms.
 
1:03 AM
Is there source code available?
 
Presumably, yes
No idea where though
 
Wait, how is it FOSS if it costs money to buy?
 
They're selling you hardware
The software is free
 
You could in theory build the source code yourself and put it on your own usb
 
1:06 AM
I wonder what exactly it does
 
shudders
 
@musicman523 It's a Live OS for a custom Linux distro
 
If this works: thank you so GOD DANG MUCH.
 
Oh okay, so you want a flavor of linux that will run on a computer with limited RAM?
 
That will run on a computer where you don't have permissions to actually install an OS, as far as I can tell.
 
1:09 AM
Yes ^
 
Ohhhhhh okay. You want a virtualizeable container
Something like VirtualBox but that doesn't consume as much RAM
Well, there are 3 types of virtualization: Full virtualization, paravirtualization, and container virtualization
 
The restrictions are ... kinda tight. Virtualbox/Virtualbox-like-things might work, I haven't tried it yet.
 
In a nutshell, full virtualization is tricking the guest OS into believing it is running on actual hardware, where in reality it is running inside a box
 
0
Q: Convert Between Percentages and Decimal

musicman523I, uh....honestly can't believe we don't have this one yet. Challenge Write two functions or programs that: Convert from decimal to percentage Convert from percentage to decimal Format Percentages must be taken and returned with a percent sign. (In many languages, this means they will be s...

 
that's what virtualbox does
paravirtualization is a slightly modified version of the guest OS so that it knows it's being virtualized and how to handle it
and container virtualization is essentially splitting one OS into many separate parts that can't see inside each other no matter what
In order of overhead/RAM use, you have: Full, Para, and Container
I believe Windows 7/8/10 have support for container virtualization
And I think this best solves the problem that you are trying to solve
Of course I've never done it
 
1:13 AM
Who has, to be honest?
 
Well, I know people who have done container virtualization of Linux using Docker
And there appears to be some information from Microsoft on this
 
I'm screwed ... I lost my 64GB USB, with all my stuff from my Windows on it ... argh.
(which will [if I find it] have the distro)...
 
Who thinks 8GB will be enough for Xtra-PC?
 
1:30 AM
Enough to install programs/play games? Definitely not. Enough to browse the internet/check email/whatever? Sure.
 
I need to find that 64 GB.
I'm outta here, cya.
 
Hey
Just answered a question
0
A: Convert Between Percentages and Decimal

ckjbgamesPython 3, 26 24 bytes + 27 bytes = 51 bytes First program (% -> decimal) float(input()[:-1])*0.01 Explanation: float(input()[:-1])*0.01 float( ) # Convert to floating-point number. input()[:-1]) # Take input and remove the % sign (@ index -1) ...

@StepHen Hi
anyone going to say anything
bye...?
 
1:50 AM
@ckjbgames sup?
 
2:01 AM
@StepHen sorry i left
here i am
0
Q: How should we score programs in languages that tokenize instructions?

ckjbgamesI feel like this should be said, because many answers have been made in TI-BASIC, Applesoft BASIC, and other languages that tokenize instructions. How exactly should they be scored? Should we score them as plain UTF-8 or by how they are stored in memory? Are there any exceptions? Thank you so muc...

I am surprised that no one asked a question in general about all languages that tokenize instructions.
 
@ckjbgames They did
 
@Phoenix link
 
20
A: How to score TI-BASIC

TimtechTI-Basic is tokenized Each one-byte token (Then, If, End, Ans, etc.) is stored internally as one byte. Thus, it should only count as one byte. Similarly, lowercase letters a-z count as two bytes each, since this is how they are stored on the calculator. (Source). Each command, variable, and ...

 
@Phoenix I was also looking for exceptions and just a general consensus on how these languages are scored.
I do have another question. It's about Brain-Flak.
Are debug flags allowed?
 
Why wouldn't they be?
Yes, they are allowed, but it sorta defeats the purpose of brain-flak golfing.
 
2:10 AM
@Phoenix It would be funny to make a Brain-Flak answer out of only debug flags
 
I don't think it's possible.
Debug flags can't manipulate the stack.
 
@Phoenix Mostly debug flags.
 
I suppose you could use injection
 
@Phoenix Hmm :thinking
 
injection is evaling code from stdin, so I don't think it counts.
 
Anonymous
2:16 AM
@musicman523 The "free" in FOSS means free as in speech (i.e. freedom), not free as in beer (i.e. price). Anybody with a legitimately-obtained copy of the software is free (as in speech) to distribute it for as much or as little as they want, so long as they follow the terms of the license.
 
@Phoenix agree
@Mego FOSS for lief
 
FLOSS is better acronym
 
Anonymous
@DestructibleLemon Yeah Libre is a better term than Free
 
also because FLOSS is a real thing
 
@Mego libre
 
2:21 AM
As in LibreOffice
 
I am adding a new "quiet" option to Brain-Flak
 
@Phoenix I think they were correcting grammar
 
I don't know Ruby, so I am just guessing around
 
quiet?
What would that do?
 
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Leo Tenenbaum"Hello, World!" (Every other character, Part 2) As a kind of part 2 to Hello, World! (Every other character), try to write a program that prints "Hello, World!". But also, if you take the first, third, fifth, etc. characters of your program, it should still print "Hello, World!". But this time, ...

 
2:23 AM
@ckjbgames Interesting. What would that do?
 
@DJMcMayhem It makes less output
Especially for debug
 
How so?
 
@DJMcMayhem Mostly just modifying if statements to also test if debug is false
 
Brainflak doesn't have any verbose unneeded output.
It only outputs what you want it to.
 
Well, it has debug output
 
2:25 AM
@Phoenix I am talking about output created by the interpreter, not the program, mostly in debug mode
@DJMcMayhem Indeed
 
Right, but why suppress debug output. You could just not put the flags in.
 
Should I make interpreter.inspect not output in quiet mode?
 
So quiet mode would only have an effect if you're also in debug mode?
 
@DJMcMayhem No
Only implementing debug mode stuff now, because I need to shleep
 
What would it do in non-debug mode?
 
2:28 AM
@Phoenix Shorten error messages
Bye!
 
@ckjbgames Well, if you want thoughts or feedback on it, the best spot is The Third Stack, where all the flakheads hang out
And the advantage of posting in there is that I (and other users who care about brain-flak) will definitely end up reading it later, whereas it could easily get buried in the TNB transcript
 
Anonymous
> flakheads
 
Anonymous
That sounds derogatory :P
 
Haha, it does
 
3:04 AM
All ya flakheads get off my lawn.
 
0
Q: How should we score programs in languages that tokenize instructions?

ckjbgamesI feel like this should be said, because many answers have been made in TI-BASIC, Applesoft BASIC, and other languages that tokenize instructions. How exactly should they be scored? Should we score them as plain UTF-8 or by how they are stored in memory? Are there any exceptions? Thank you so muc...

 
Anonymous
Wow, that was slow
 
Ooh the new challenge is gonna be a tad bit harder
 
3:32 AM
0
Q: "Hello, World!" (Every other character, Part 2)

Leo TenenbaumAs a kind of part 2 to Hello, World! (Every other character), try to write a program that prints "Hello, World!". But also, if you take the first, third, fifth, etc. characters of your program, it should still print "Hello, World!". But this time, if you take the second, fourth, sixth, etc. chara...

 
3:42 AM
hi
 
4:06 AM
@Mego I was under the impression that the F had both meanings, beer and speech
 
Anonymous
@musicman523 Nope. Just free as in speech. Some software is free as in beer too, but that's not a component of FOSS.
 
@Mego fun fact: free as in beer is not free as in free beer
 
 
2 hours later…
5:57 AM
1
A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

isaacgCalculate Treewidth The Treewidth of an undirected graph is a very important concept in Graph Theory. Tons of graph algorithms have been invented which run fast if you have a decomposition of the graph with small treewidth. The treewidth is often defined in terms of tree decompositions. Here's ...

 
As soon as NSP posted that ∧, the challenge was posted on main
 
1
Q: Calculate Treewidth

isaacgThe treewidth of an undirected graph is a very important concept in Graph Theory. Tons of graph algorithms have been invented which run fast if you have a decomposition of the graph with small treewidth. The treewidth is often defined in terms of tree decompositions. Here's a graph and a tree de...

 
6:18 AM
I think this is clear now, but since I edited the challenge myself, I'm biased. Could somebody take a look?
5
Q: Printing criss cross of two strings

K Split XGiven a set of two strings guaranteed to be the same length, print their criss cross. The criss cross of two strings is obtained as follows. Yield the second character of the second string, then the first character of the first string. Yield the first character of the second string, then the s...

 
@Dennis Yeah, I think it's clear now.
 
I don't know why it was closed in the first place, but it is much clearer now
 
OK, thanks.
 
@KritixiLithos Because there used to not be an explanation of what a criss-cross is, just a diagram.
And the diagram is kinda hard to follow.
"If the strings have more than one character each" is redundant given "guaranteed to be the same length"
I think the word "each" could be replaced with "left"
 
7:16 AM
I just heard fireworks go off
FFS it's July 2nd
 
Hey, does anyone here know about Thompson's algorithm?
Is there any way I can represent a regex like this: [^a]* in an NFA format?
 
7:34 AM
@Qwerp-Derp Sure, you have three states, start, trap, accept. From start, a leads to trap, else leads back to start and to accept.
 
What about something like abcd(?!efg)?
Do I just simplify it to abcd[^e][^f][^g]?
 
[^a]* is any number of non-a characters.
I don't actually know NFA syntax, I have to actually plot out a graph of states.
 
That is an NFA...
 
Anybody knows pyth ?
 
NFA means some kind of Finite Automota?
Or no
 
7:42 AM
?
 
I think Leaky Nun does
Don't know anyone else
 
@LeakyNun You're here ?
 
@AlexKChen yes
 
That was fast...
 
@Phoenix Erik and Jim
and isaacg the creator
@AlexKChen what's your question?
 
7:44 AM
Okay, so basically I have a list [[2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 34, 39, 44, 52, 57, 62, 65, 67, 72, 85, 95, ...., 9979] (Can you guess what is it :P ?), and are there any method such that it would return -1 or 0 (or any fixed stuff) if a number is not there, or the index of it otherwise ?
 
@Qwerp-Derp that isn't equivalent
@AlexKChen I see some prime-related structure but I can't tell exactly what it is
 
^ relevant article
Get jflap if you don't already have it it's great.
 
@AlexKChen use x
 
@Phoenix interesting
 
7:47 AM
I have googled and found this, but that's not useful since it rasies an error. Also, @LeakyNun how to use the x ?
Basically I need it to find the density of the numbers below n.
 
@AlexKChen pyth is not python...
I've included a link to show you how to use x
 
Oh shit I meant python of course.
I used pyth as the abbreviation for python.
4
 
...
what the hell
 
That's why I was wondering why so few people knew Python.
Yeah, @LeakyNun so how to do that in python ?
 
this is code golf. golfed language names become another language :p
 
7:49 AM
Hi, I made Pyth. I understand the confusion
 
@LeakyNun Why is it not equivalent?
 
@AlexKChen here
 
@Qwerp-Derp abcd(?!efg) matches abcd while abcd[^e][^f][^g] does not
 
@AlexKChen If your list is called a, and the thing you want to lookup is b, then b in a and a.index(b) is your best option.
 
@Qwerp-Derp abcd(?!efg) matches abcdefh while abcd[^e][^f][^g]
 
7:52 AM
@isaacg But that raises an error when the number is not in the list.
 
@KritixiLithos What about abcd[^e]*[^f]*[^g]*?
 
and no, you can't do lookaheads in NFA because it is supposed to look at the whole string
 
Or does that still not work
Yeah
 
lookaheads matches half the string while looking at the whole string
 
@AlexKChen Give it shot - you'll find that it doesn't. the and is short-circuiting.
 
7:53 AM
I think I have an idea for lookaheads and lookbehinds though - I can match the lookahead first, then the middle bit, then the lookbehind
 
also they match different strings, abcd(?!efg) just matches abcd and nothing else in the string (if it matches), while the second expression matches abcd and the 3 characters following it
 
And then just keep the middle bit
 
The code is "b in a and a.index(b)", to be clear.
 
@KritixiLithos Yeah, I know that
 
initially: abcd: state 1
initially: otherwise: state 4
1: e: state 2
1: otherwise: state 0
2: f: state 3
2: otherwise: state 0
3: f: state 4
3: otherwise: state 0
0: accept
4: reject
and then of course "abcd" would need 4 states
this is abcd(?!efg) @Qwerp-Derp
@isaacg you need +1 i think
 
7:55 AM
I am doing a lot of procrastination right now
 
Shouldn't it be 3: g: state 4?
 
@LeakyNun Good point, currently not found and is the first one are indistinguishable. But this satisfies what was originally asked.
 
@Qwerp-Derp yes
 
So that's how I would match a lookbehind?
 
you don't.
NFA matches entire string
lookbehind matches half the string
 
8:06 AM
?????
WDYM? You just said that the thing there is abcd(?!efg)
Do I get rid of a string that matches efg on the end?
 
so my thing isn't technically abcd(?!efg)
because that's impossible
 
morning
 
treat it as abcd(?!efg).*
 
so you can only accept or reject the entire string?
 
what is the third case?
 
8:15 AM
So my plan is to split my regex into three groups: the lookbehind, the main regex and the lookahead
And then make each one a separate NFA
First I match the main regex, then the lookbehind and lookahead
Is this a good plan for my regex parser @LeakyNun?
 
oh, you're building a regex parser...
I think lookbehinds match right-to-left
 
???
 
what if you have both lookahead and lookbehind?
 
@NieDzejkob No problem, the lookbehind is behind the main match and the lookahead is in front, I can match them separately
 
8:47 AM
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Mr. XcoderAm I an imperfect String? An imperfect string has the following properties (for this challenge only): The number of vowels (aeiou and uppercase) does not equal to the number of consonants (bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz and uppercase) it contains. If it contains digits (0123456789), their count must be...

Any feedback ^?
I guess I'll post it, then.
 
I strongly suggest you wait longer before posting your challenge @Mr.Xcoder
 
It's generally advised to wait at least a few days in the sandbox, and personally I wait over a week to make sure people have had a chance to see it. Not everyone is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
No feedback generally means it hasn't been in the sandbox long enough - asking in here for more feedback is good.
@Mr.Xcoder Just had a look at your sandbox post. "Test cases to be added later" means it's not ready to post yet... Seems good so far though
Bear in mind that test cases are among the most important things to get feedback on before posting
 
9:08 AM
Thanks @KritixiLithos and @trichoplax, I will wait then
 
9:19 AM
Thanks a lot for suggesting the above, I have edited the challenge and added test cases.
 

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