The Nineteenth Byte

7:00 PM

> Code Golf Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for programming puzzle enthusiasts and code golfers. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of programming puzzles and their solutions, with the help of our [Sandbox for Proposed Questions]().

Redwolf Programs

We should just replace the whole tour with a giant link saying "SANDBOX" that fills the whole screen, with arrows pointing to it

ChartZ Belatedly

That would be an alright way of doing it :P

"Hello! Welcome to the site! Now, go [here](sandbox link). Use this forever. Good? Ok"

Unrelated String

honestly kind of crazy how many people decide that they want to post a question before trying to answer anything

pxeger

indeed

ChartZ Belatedly

It makes sense for anyone coming from other parts of the network

pxeger

7:02 PM

I suppose there's quite some survivorship bias there though

ChartZ Belatedly

It's the users who create an account and immediately write up a VLQ challenge that makes me wonder

pxeger

fucking hell, Firefox's spellcheck is awful. It put a red line under survivorship, and I went to edit it to fix the spelling, but it's definitely right!

Deadcode

Done with the housekeeping edits, this is an actual golf: codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/164911/…

Redwolf Programs

I just disable spell check on everything I use

ChartZ Belatedly

I simultaneously cannot live without autocorrect, and absolutely hate autocorrect

3

@Deadcode Genuine question: how do you remember about golfing tips from 2019 in order to go back and golf your code from them?

pxeger

7:05 PM

yes

ChartZ Belatedly

I forget golfs that were commented an hour ago, let along 2 years

pxeger

As I learn new golfing tips, I remember old answers where I might have used them, then go back and find and shorten them

ChartZ Belatedly

@RedwolfPrograms Well, I've already found the question I want to nominate for it, so now I'm going to be refreshing meta non-stop for the next 4 hours :P

At least I would if my internet was working :/

Original Original Original VI

@ChartZBelatedly Tsk tsk, just use your brain

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI My brain does have to connect to a network to send and receive packets :P

Original Original Original VI

7:08 PM

Any testcase suggestions?

@ChartZBelatedly Meh, it's not much more useful than a router then :P

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI Oh, I don't like overflow-based challenges :(

Original Original Original VI

@ChartZBelatedly Let us not discuss our political views here.

ChartZ Belatedly

They don't lend too well to using Jelly (written in Python) :P

Original Original Original VI

You don't have to make it overflow, though

ChartZ Belatedly

Left wing: supports overflow but not underflow
Right wing: supports underflow but not overflow
Centrist: Only uses bits for all calculations

Original Original Original VI

7:13 PM

Any string with the right hashcode is fine, so you can probably easily use Jelly

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI I'd suggest just generating a few random integers, run them through a reference implementation and use those as test cases

Original Original Original VI

@ChartZBelatedly Don't we use bits for all calculations? Or do the left and right use qubits?

@ChartZBelatedly Good idea

ChartZ Belatedly

Centrists, not wanting to be seen as biased, only use 1 and 0 :P

Original Original Original VI

If I had a reference implementation, though, I wouldn't ask this challenge, I'd just hack Bob :P

Deadcode

@ChartZBelatedly Remember about the existence of the tips, you mean? Well as you know, I just went through every one of my regex answers to do housekeeping edits, so I was again reminded by seeing each of the golf tips I haven't researched/applied yet

Original Original Original VI

7:14 PM

@ChartZBelatedly I figured they'd use a qubit with a fifty percent chance of collapsing to 0 or 1 :P

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI In which case, VTC as off-topic, as we aren't doing your work for you :P

Original Original Original VI

If you'd get to know Bob, you'd support this challenge too :P

Redwolf Programs

I think the challenge we choose for the tour should be somewhat short, so that (some of) the test cases are visible.

ChartZ Belatedly

On the other hand, challenges should be properly specified

Redwolf Programs

I'm going to propose using this one

ChartZ Belatedly

7:21 PM

I was thinking any of Is it a prime, Mathematics is fact, Fizz Buzz or Fibonacci

They're all examples of well-written, well-specified challenges that are easy enough for a new user to just jump straight into, but each of them has a potential failing

No easily visible test cases, more difficult than the others, not an input -> output challenge, very "overplayed"

Plus, Fibonacci has an accepted answer, which (although we discourage it) fits into the Tour

Redwolf Programs

I think the "Is this number triangular" one I proposed is best, because it's brief but still contains everything required.

ChartZ Belatedly

Hmm, if only there was a meta post where we could lay out our arguments and people could vote either way :P

Redwolf Programs

I'll post it in a few hours, I'm in math class right now so I have an excuse to procrastinate :p

pxeger

7:39 PM

I think we should choose one that has modern rules, linking to Standard Loopholes and Standard IO Rules

Redwolf Programs

But modern rules don't require linking to those

pxeger

But that's best practice

New Bounties With No Deadlines

0

A: List of bounties with no deadline

500 rep for \$\pi(n)\$ in unary ECMAScript regex This is something I've been thinking about ever since 2014, and I haven't been able to get anywhere with it. See my answer to Prime counting function for an explanation as to why I suspect it is impossible. I will award the highest bounty the site ...

Redwolf Programs

I thought it was best practice not to, since it's a site default

ChartZ Belatedly

Yeah, but it's good to make an exception so that new users can see them

Redwolf Programs

7:40 PM

It wouldn't be visible anyway, the challenge is cropped super far up

ChartZ Belatedly

Besides, we can edit them into whatever challenge we choose if necessary

pxeger

good point

Neil

8:19 PM

@pxeger you get what you pay for. (which dictionary do you use anyway? survivorship doesn't show as misspelled for me)

Redwolf Programs

8:31 PM

I'm so used to messing around on emulators I almost just deleted my whole /usr directory on my main computer without thinking about it ._.

Deadcode

@RedwolfPrograms Yikes! Got a backup?

Redwolf Programs

I do for the ones like /home, yeah.

Original Original Original VI

One more Factor answer to get 500 rep from Bubbler!

ChartZ Belatedly

Last minute dash :P

Original Original Original VI

Any questions I should answer?

ChartZ Belatedly

8:43 PM

Whatever comes up on recently active :P

Looks like Vim's gonna be LotM for April

Original Original Original VI

Who's going to make a post for it?

ChartZ Belatedly

And, the poster's deleted their account (I think it was petStorm, or 2x-1, or whatever they go by now)

Original Original Original VI

I think 2x-1 is back to 2x-1

Or maybe usr

ChartZ Belatedly

I'll do it and make it CW if no-one's particularly bothered about who does it

@RedwolfPrograms Do you use your main computer in math class? :P

Redwolf Programs

Well, "main" as in the one I use most often. I have a better one, but I mostly just use it for Minecraft every once and a while.

I joined a SE site just to post this comment: music.stackexchange.com/questions/113245/…

ChartZ Belatedly

8:50 PM

@RedwolfPrograms How do you downvote a comment? :P

Redwolf Programs

If there's ever a perfect opportunity for that meme it is there

ChartZ Belatedly

@RedwolfPrograms Man, I like their custom badges

Wish we got stuff like that

Original Original Original VI

I think Arqade or someplace had nice badges too

Redwolf Programs

Ours are boring

ChartZ Belatedly

Gradscript ftw \o/

Redwolf Programs

8:51 PM

But what would make sense for Code Golf badges?

Original Original Original VI

Gold medal, silver medal, and bronze medal

ChartZ Belatedly

Either trophies like in the gradscript, or they could just add the "straps" for the medallions so the badges look closer to the site logo

Original Original Original VI

Or waffles, pancakes, and calamari

Redwolf Programs

Yum

ChartZ Belatedly

Or have the badges be "Jelly", "CJam", "Golfscript" :P

Redwolf Programs

8:53 PM

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI I hear that's a common potato chip flavor in Canada

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI NGL, that sounds like a solid quality meal

Original Original Original VI

@RedwolfPrograms Which one?

@ChartZBelatedly Minus the pancakes, totally

And minus the calamari

ChartZ Belatedly

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI the one above the US

Original Original Original VI

And plus some chocolate syrup

@ChartZBelatedly :P

Redwolf Programs

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI All of them, together

Original Original Original VI

8:54 PM

@RedwolfPrograms Waffle-pancake-calamari-potato chips?

ChartZ Belatedly

I legit would eat that for brunch :P

(Not the chips bit)

Original Original Original VI

CMQ: Is Canada a real place? Is it really Canadia? Or do both not exist?

Lyxal

9:35 PM

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI I am proud of you

You have done well

👏

(didn't get me though because I was only log reading and logically deduced what you did. I then looked at the link addresses.)

Original Original Original VI

@Lyxal Thank you :)

@Lyxal Yeah, I blame Redwolf for basically spilling the beans

Manuel

10:19 PM

Hi all, may be a few questions spinning something around the mRNA of some vaccines would be appropiate in this site :) Just saying...

ChartZ Belatedly

@Manuel Feel free to post a draft in the Sandbox :)

We're more than happy to provide feedback for drafts

Here are some existing challenges involving RNA and DNA (couldn't find anything for mRNA though)

New Main Posts

10:34 PM

0

Q: (Σ*)² ⟲ Σ* (aka Round-Trip a String Pair)

This is a challenge I thought of recently which I think is not hard but allows for a wide range of possible solutions. Seems like a perfect fit for the creativity of PPCG users :) Your Task Define two functions which together form a lossless round-trip String × String → String → String × String. ...

popularity-contest

ChartZ Belatedly

10:46 PM

I'm watching this video, and the dude basically decides to spent a decent amount of time ripping into URLs which increment the ID for each new post. Like SE does :P

Bubbler

11:10 PM

@ChartZBelatedly How about this? (I can move the notice at the top to the bottom)

ChartZ Belatedly

11:22 PM

@Bubbler Yeah, that's a good candidate. If/when Redwolf posts the meta post, you should nominate it

Original Original Original VI

CMM: Is it discouraged to post comment saying simply "Thanks!" or variants of it when someone gives you a suggestion on how to improve your score?

Bubbler

@OriginalOriginalOriginalVI Thanks-comments are discouraged across the entire SE network, and usually considered "not needed" (there's even a flag reason for it). But CGCC seems to be more lenient on them.

I simply upvote a good golf and add credits in the main answer. I'm OK with others writing thanks comments though.

Original Original Original VI

11:46 PM

Do y'all have any suggestions for hosting a small website that has practically no storage?

I'm trying to find a free hosting service.

WordPress looks good but it seems to be freemium

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