« first day (1658 days earlier)      last day (3481 days later) » 
00:00 - 14:0014:00 - 00:00

14:19
> Ryu doing this to me? Ken you not?
2
14:30
0
Q: Digitising the Library of Babel

March HoThe Library of Babel is defined as a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. For the purposes of this question, each page of the book contains 40 lines of 40 characters each. The formatting rules are as follows:...

15:20
I'm considering a stack snippet for the language quiz challenge. Could someone help me brainstorm how it should work?
It should be able to display a) vulnerable cops, b) safe cops, c) a robbers' leaderboard with links to cracked answers.
anything else?
I'm thinking cops could use a header like ???, 87 bytes, and once they reveal their language, they replace the ??? with the language name.
We'd then need a protocol for cracking answers.
(there won't be a separate robbers' thread)
Some kind of "Cracked: <language>" in a comment should do the trick?
right, but what if it turns out to be incorrect?
should the posts edit "Cracked" into their header?
I think that's a better idea. It's easier to edit answers than comments, anyways.
Perhaps "Cracked by <user>"
You could have robbers post guesses in comments however they want, and then if they're correct, the poster edits the post with the language and robber's name.
yeah something like that sounds good
15:28
@BrainSteel Excellent idea. It means that the snippet can handle tallying those up as well.
I'm very excited for this challenge. I'm working on a needlessly silly answer right now...
don't hold your breath, I'll probably leave it in the sandbox over the weekend
Oh, I know. This answer is going to take a while to finish. I'll need the time ;)
15:58
I posted a sandbox thread on meta, feel free to add some answers to help me test the snippet (once I write it)
Talking of meta, one thought which occurs about the mod election:
When you post the real thing, it would be good to make it clear whether the candidates are expected to not vote at all, to not vote for themselves, or to vote as freely as everyone else.
as freely as everyone else, but I'll mention that explicitly.
good point, thanks
just like normal elections..
1
Q: Cops and Robbers Stack Snippet Sandbox

Martin BüttnerI'm writing a Stack Snippet for my upcoming Language Quiz challenge. Since it requires some specific formatting not present in any existing challenge yet, I'll test it here with dummy answers. Feel free to add answers and comments as you see fit to help me test it. I will delete this post when t...

17:00
this is neat:
29
Q: Why can int _$[:>=<%-!.0,}; compile?

amuseToday I found strange syntax like int _$[:>=<%-!.0,}; in some old code, but in fact the code is not commented. There seems to be no report of compile errors for this line. I tested it separately and it can compile too: int main(){ int _$[:>=<%-!.0,}; return 0; } Why can it compile?

Di/trigraph confusion strikes again!
17:46
@MartinBüttner Black magic.
18:16
General question for y'all: When you have a bunch of variables that you're assigning in a row (in production/non-golf code), do you fill with spaces between the end of the variable name and the equals sign to line all of them up nicely?
@Vioz- What language?
Regardless of the language, I typically don't.
I do it in all of the ones I use regularly (Python, C#)
(Unless I'm editing someone else's code and they've consistently done it)
I'm a believer in whitespace, but I only use multiple spaces in a row if it's for indentation or for separating an inline comment from a line of code.
Just personal style.
Fair enough, I just didn't know how common it was
I didn't originally start doing it, but I liked the way it made the code read easier (to me, anyways)
Yes, I do think it can be nice to look at.
18:23
Yeah. Now that I think about it, I only tend to use it if it's on the first indentation level
Is it code for school or for a job?
Well, both
What do you do for work?
I tend to avoid it in school more though, since we can't have lines longer than 80 characters or we lose marks on it
I work doing software for referrals from clients of the company's main business.
The business is within the oil industry, but a decent number of people find out that you can develop software (this being my boss), and they send you clients from all over the place to work on stuff.
I'm a summer hire to help out, since my boss was the only one working on these large-scale applications
Sounds neat! I bet your boss is exceptionally glad to have you around, especially since you're clearly a very talented programmer.
@Vioz- Brutal, so someone could theoretically write some code that's really efficient and solves the problem at hand but could fail the assignment due to coding style?
Actually, I guess that makes sense.
18:28
They wouldn't necessarily fail, but yes, style at the end of the day is about 25-30% of the grade
That extends to not spacing 'well enough' between variable assignments, proper variable and function names
not "cramming" code, i.e. using 4 list comprehensions on the same line, rather split them up into four separate steps
Oof. Yeah, I'd mark someone down for that if I was a professor.
How close are you to finishing your degree?
BSc in computer science, yes?
Yeah. I'm sort of going to be starting year 1.5, haha. I was originally doing a BESc in Geomatics because I couldn't get in to CS. After the first year, I applied to transfer, so starting in ~3 weeks I will be having my "trial semester".
With sufficient grades I will be finishing "Year 1" sometime early next year.
So looking at a 2018-2019 graduation.
That's... confusing. I have two questions.
1. What is "geomatics"?
2. What is a trial semester?
And what is a BESc?
Environmental Science
Geomatics - Geomatics (also known as geospatial technology or geomatics engineering, or geomatic engineering, géomatique in French) is the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering geographic information, or spatially referenced information.
I had the same question when they gave the offer :P
A trial semester is giving me access to CS Major courses, and based on my performance (In this case, 70% in all), I will be admitted to Computer Science.
Hm, that's pretty different from how things work(ed) where I did my undergraduate studies.
Sounds like geomatics could be interesting.
18:41
Oh, I can certainly see how a lot of people loved it. Geography just doesn't speak well with me, per-say.
And definitely a solid career path, in fact geomatics is basically this company's business
Managing deeds and land of large oil companies
Did you find out that the geography portion doesn't interest you after starting the degree program? :P
I wasn't thrilled about it beforehand, if I'm honest. Just that first year solidified that thought :P
I was moreso excited about getting into the #1 school in the country for Computer Science, thinking I would be able to transfer
In retrospect that probably shouldn't have been the method of attack
Well it sounds like it's worked for you given that you're going into a trial semester for the program you want. :)
Yep! Now just to net mess it up :P Thankfully it's not a big course load so I should be able to handle it easily.
I'm sure you'll do awesome.
18:51
Thanks!
19:04
@AlexA. What's your story? :)
@MartinBüttner Uhh maybe. Depends on what I think of the CnR challenge I suppose.
@BetaDecay Would you mind if I compressed the stack snippet in your cops challenge?
@Dennis Oh no that's fine :)
@BetaDecay Done.
That was fast! :D
@MartinBüttner I've got an idea for an answer for your CnR but the language has neither an esolangs page nor a Wikipedia page, however it is fully documented
19:23
^ Same here.
I really can't wait to see the answers for @MartinBüttner's challenge. It seems like it is going to be really fun. I tried to write one but it was utterly pathetic...
I can't wait to see all of the languages that people have dredged up from the deepest, darkest parts of history
@BetaDecay Story?
@AlexA. You know, like job, house, wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend/magpie
@Vioz- GIS is the term I'm more familiar with. Or do some people draw a distinction?
19:30
0
Q: Fill empty spaces by filling empty blanks

eguneysWrite a function placeAt that takes an array and an index. It places 1 at a given index with these properties: if array at index position is 0, place 1 at index position. if array at index position is not 0, we need to shift items left or right to make room Examples: [a, b, 0, c, d, 0] placeA...

@BetaDecay I live in a condo in the woods with my girlfriend of many years. I work as a programmer in medical research, but I don't really like what I do and I'm currently looking for something else. I've never seen a magpie in person but I like birds.
@AlexA. Sounds interesting :)
But you've never seen a magpie?
@PeterTaylor Both are acceptable terms. GIS generally refers to the technology used, rather than the line of work though.
Do you not get them in Washington?
I suppose so. BSc in math with a minor in statistics, doing an online master's in applied statistics part-time. No, I don't think there are magpies in Washington but I could be wrong.
What's your story, @Beta?
19:33
IUCN shows magpies as not being native to the Americas at all. I didn't realise that.
2
Well I'm a 15 and 11 month old boy who goes to school in North Wales, living out near the Snowdonia mountains. I program as a hobby and hope to go into QM as a profession later in life @AlexA.
Actually, not being present, but I doubt they'd have been killed out easily.
@BetaDecay Quantum mechanics?
Quality management?
Queen magpie?
Nah haha what Peter said
@PeterTaylor I didn't realize that either! Interesting.
Haha someone starred that. I guess they assume I'm living a lie as a magpie in America.
19:41
Or just a European immigrant? ;)
Maybe it was a twitcher who hadn't come across that site before.
Twitcher?
A subspecies of birdwatcher.
Basically the kind of person who takes the Pokémon approach to birding.
19:43
Haha like tries to capture them in little plastic containers?
I'm a not-very-dedicated member of the class. One of my mother's cousins (if I remember the relationship correctly) is much more serious.
I meant in the sense of gotta-catch-'em-all.
4
More interested in ticking names off a list than scientific study.
Ah, I see. So you like to birdwatch?
Is there a large variety of birds in Spain?
It's best in spring and autumn when the migratories are coming through.
But even in winter there are some beauties around. I saw a kingfisher here in December.
19:48
Oh wow!
The majority of the birds I see around here are crows with the occasional bluejay and bald eagle.
(And seagulls once you get closer to the ocean)
So you have some close relatives of the magpie then.
You should come round my place
It's bird haven
I went on holiday to Snowdonia with my family in 2012. Got some nice pictures of gulls.
Failed to see ospreys.
Beautiful pictures!
The only birds I ever see are geese.
19:54
Canadian geese, I presume?
Yes. There's a family that lives in my parent's neighborhood. They're nice.
The ones on campus, however..
Firstly, at any time there's about 400 geese there, and they get mean real quick
Our school is famous within Canada for geese attacks.
Over one of the breaks two geese ganged up on a wild turkey and killed it.
Or broke it's leg or something..
Yeah. Now that I think about it, it must've been sometime in the spring
Probably protecting their babies
But yeah, they get vicious.
Geese are the jerks of the bird kingdom.
@PeterTaylor Snowdonia is my favourite place on Earth. Apart from Zion National Park
19:58
I haven't been to either of those places. :O
Living in Singapore was such a better bird-spotting scenario.
Oh, I bet the birds there are brightly colored.
Mount Saint Helens is beautiful too
And Crater Lake
Yep! We had a family of parrots that lived in our backyard at one house.
Loud as hell, but at least nice to look at.
@BetaDecay Hey, that's near me! (Kind of)
20:00
Pets which escaped or were released?
@AlexA. Haha that's why I chose them ;)
0
Q: Giving Directions

Basset HoundChallenge You've given a map to a friend that looks a bit like this: | / | / | \ | \ D A simple map that starts at the top and ends at the bottom. Sadly, your friend doesn't get it. Can you decode the map so that he can read it? Input The input ...

20:13
@BetaDecay If I'm not mistaken, these answers (link, link) are safe. If you confirm this, I'll edit them so they show up on the leaderboard.
Yep, they're safe.
@Fatalize You can show the answers to your safe submissions now
20:51
@Vioz- I seem to recall that uncle bob considered that a code smell in Clean Code, but maybe I read it somewhere else.
"Code smell"? :P
@Calvin'sHobbies well it would be nice to know before the challenge goes live ;)... It's okay though if you don't want to.
In computer programming, code smell is any symptom in the source code of a program that possibly indicates a deeper problem. According to Fowler, "a code smell is a surface indication that usually corresponds to a deeper problem in the system". Another way to look at smells is with respect to principles and quality: "smells are certain structures in the code that indicate violation of fundamental design principles and negatively impact design quality". Code smells are usually not bugs—they are not technically incorrect and do not currently prevent the program from functioning. Instead, they indicate...
@BetaDecay what language is that? CC @Vioz-
Oh, @Calvin'sHobbies in case it's not clear, I was referring to the language quiz challenge I sandboxed
@MartinBüttner I know. And yeah alright. I'll write a challenge about the winning robber.
@MartinBüttner If I say it, then I can't post it as a cop :P
@MartinBüttner Just be sure to tell me when a winner is decided in case I don't notice.
21:07
@BetaDecay well currently you can't post it as a cop either, but if you tell me I could make an informed decision about changing the language selection criterion
If you want, I can invite you to a private chat
@Calvin'sHobbies awesome, thanks
@MartinBüttner When do you plan on posting it?
Monday, provided I get around to finishing the stack snippet by then
@MartinBüttner It's called Frink
I also thought about Algoid
Hm, I see. I think I'll stick to the existing rules, or people will use their own, obscure languages no one knows about (but which are well documented on some GitHub repo no one ever found)
And algoid: algoid.net/…
@MartinBüttner Okay, sure. I'll just have to do some searching on EsoLangs :)
21:13
It might rule out some legitimate languages, but there are enough alternatives to choose from.
@BetaDecay Now that you mentioned it in chat, you can't use it anyway. :P
@Dennis I was hoping people would forget by the time it is posted :P
I'm currently fighting the urge to star the two languages you mentioned. :P
21:30
You're more maniacal than I thought ;)
Yea! I got promoted to Software Developer II
What does that mean? :|
@Dennis in this case, explanations would probably fit better in the cracked answer
@BetaDecay Absolutely nothing. The email containing my promotion says "This is for entertainment purposes only."
4
I don't see anyone writing clever code to crack an answer, so all interesting explanation can be done by the cop.
We'd just get constant auto answer-to-comment conversion with a robbers thread.
21:34
If it's just about how the code works, sure. There might be an interesting approach to finding the language, but you're probably right.
How many answers do you think there would be until people run out of languages?
Discounting polyglots
It's not like you can't reuse languages
Oh yeah. I'm just finding it hard to think of ways to produce "Hello world" apart from compression, hardcoding, using ASCII codes and base conversion
But I suppose that the great people of PPCG will find a way
The great people of PPCG, of course!
21:44
I don't see them.
That's because you're staring at a computer screen.
@MartinBüttner What exactly counts as available? Does the Wikipedia/Esolang page have to link to an interpreter?
@Optimizer They're the people who don't go on chat. After coming here you lose all programming skill
TimTech?
@Dennis "findable in the depths of the internet"?
21:50
"dark web"
"silk road"
"restaurant at the end of the internet"
The mass of a super-massive black hole measured in suns http://t.co/7Zsa5vevzt
22:01
Durr
22:42
How hard would it be to write a script which takes a sandbox answer and fills in the question forms on main?
And changes the body of the sandbox post to posted
23:04
Not too hard, but I'd rather do it manually because I almost always find something to improve in the process.
Well I wouldn't expect it to post straight away, so you can remove meta notes
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

steveverrillASCII Art chessboard In this challenge, you are to draw the chessboard below, and allow for moves to be made. 1. Drawing Each white square has 5x9 spaces. Each black square has 5x9 colons. The board is surrounded by a border of colons. The pieces are 5 characters wide and sit on the bottom ...

@PeterTaylor What do you think about the tests I added to my sandbox post?
@BetaDecay What do you mean by the languages of the following websites? Would you feed the sites' source code into the program, the output of document.getElementById('mw-content-text').innerText or something else?
@Dennis That's probably inefficient though
It would give you a massive score
23:21
@BetaDecay I'm not sure we understood each other. What exactly are the test cases?
Random thought about the CnR snippet: maybe I should allow for some way to override the header data in a specific comment syntax if some cop refuses to play along with the required header format.
That sounds interesting.
One minor problem with the snippets: All links to posts try to display the answer inside the snippet iframe, which isn't very practical (and also forbidden by SE).
00:00 - 14:0014:00 - 00:00

« first day (1658 days earlier)      last day (3481 days later) »