The Nineteenth Byte

Sp3000

00:00

I thought that's what you were going for :P

Dennis

Not even close.

Reto Koradi

Understood that the whole thing is not serious. I thought you might be introducing some obfuscation options with the comments. But that definition is redundant then, right? Since spaces would be ignored anyway, and comments can only be spaces?

Dennis

Pretty much. I wanted to map each character of the language's name to a command (like H9Q+ does), so I had to choose something for space.

@Sp3000 Could you double-check that this doesn't work in Tiny?

0

A: The Programming Language Quiz

???, 36 bytes Echo "Hello," and " World!". End."!" This answer now contains protection against GolfScript, SPSS, Foo and Tiny. sighs

Sp3000

Seems to get stuck

Dennis

I'm not giving up until the answer gets through the seven days or somebody guesses the language.

Or brute-forces it. Whatever. :P

Sp3000

00:12

I'm on a massive brute-forcing spree right now :P It'd be funny if it was in a language where I couldn't get the interpreter working though

Optimizer

00:23

how many language interpreter you have setup?

Sp3000

About 50 - mostly esolangs though, I don't have enough disk space to install that many "real" languages

Dennis

@Sp3000 I see you're taking the robbers' challenge as seriously as I take the cops' challenge. If I only knew what platform you're on...

Sp3000

My goal is to have no cop pass. It's not working out very well :P

Dennis

grc and Peter are pretty close to the 7 days and so are you.

Sp3000

As is your 77, which looks easy enough

Dennis

00:32

I'm pretty sure grc is using an alphanumeric BF derivate, but I can't figure out which.

Sp3000

I've tried a bunch, but they haven't worked out :/

Alex A.

I'm nearing 7 days as well. Just one guess on mine so far.

Sp3000

00:57

btw has anyone seen an interpreter for BF-RLE?

isaacg

@orlp Not yet, I've been working on either things. I'll move that up the priority queue.

Alex A.

@isaacg Might as well skip 5 and go straight to 10.

Alex A.

02:03

@Doorknob I've learned a lot about programming and software development by reading your code on GitHub. So thanks. :)

@BrainSteel Hello! How are you?

BrainSteel

Hey hey hey! I'm feeling good. You?

Alex A.

I'm glad! I'm doing well, just half paying attention to several things.

BrainSteel

I know the feeling, haha.

Alex A.

Is this the end of your first week of classes?

BrainSteel

Yeah, it feels nice :D Lotta homework, though.

Alex A.

02:15

Any courses standing out so far as your favorite?

New Main Posts

0

Q: Factor these 10 semiprimes as quickly as possible

Challenge Write a program to factor these 10 numbers as quickly as possible: 15683499351193564659087946928346254200387478295674004601169717908835380854917 24336606644769176324903078146386725856136578588745270315310278603961263491677 39755798612593330363515033768510977798534810965257249856505320...

BrainSteel

Ummm... Quantum computing and Elementary geometry are both super interesting (and also particularly hard)

Sp3000

@BrainSteel Is there an interpreter for Nybbleist somewhere?

Alex A.

Sometimes hard is what makes it fun. :)

BrainSteel

@Sp3000 I'm not sure. That was a pretty wild-shot-in-the-dark guess.

Dang. But it looks so similar

Alex A.

02:24

In some ways.

;) ;) ;)

Sp3000

I still haven't seen a language which looks remotely like it could be it :/

Alex A.

Well, I'll give you a hint. It's probably a little less obscure than all of the crazy stuff people have been digging up for this challenge.

Sp3000

From the way you've been talking about it, I thought so. Doesn't make it any easier though :P (unless it's Julia, but cbf downloading atm)

Alex A.

cbf?

No, it's not as mainstream as Julia.

Sp3000

Can't be... bothered

Alex A.

02:29

Can't be fathered?

BrainSteel

I, too, am trying to figure out the 'F'

Sp3000

(Anyone want to go through this? esolangs.org/w/… )

Alex A.

@Sp3000 "Starting with #1"?

Sp3000

Uncategorised pages, eg BF derivatives not marked as so

Alex A.

Oh, I see.

BrainSteel

02:31

I doubt Alex's is a BF derivative. It's pretty short...

I'm almost certain grc must be using a BF derivative, though.

Sp3000

I meant in general for cracking any of the answers :P

(esp Peter's)

Alex A.

@BrainSteel So is Peter's.

(I'm almost 100% certain that his and mine are not the same language though)

BrainSteel

Almost?

Alex A.

I don't know what his language is, otherwise I could be 100%.

I don't think it would work in my language. It doesn't look like it would at all.

I've said too much.

Sp3000

Can't you try on the interpreter?

Alex A.

02:42

Try what? Peter's code?

Sp3000

Yeah. It'd be easier and less revealing than saying "it doesn't look like it'd work" :)

Alex A.

sigh FINE. I guess I'll check.

Nope, as I suspected, doesn't work.

BrainSteel

On the upside, there's a remote chance that you just cracked Peter's solution.

Or not.

Sp3000

Must... get... Peter's...

Alex A.

I wish.

Sp3000

02:45

Ah darn :P

Alex A.

Another hint: My language has been used on this site before.

Sp3000

Is backtick Element's only output method?

Alex A.

Sounds like a question for Phi.

Sp3000

@PhiNotPi ^^

Alex A.

Based on the docs, it looks like it is.

Sp3000

02:57

Hmm damn. Otherwise it'd be a good possible language since it doesn't require delimiters. Will probably run it through later anyway though

Alex A.

Run which through, Peter's or mine?

(or other?)

Sp3000

all

Alex A.

:P

Sp3000

(After Muriel I've decided that's probably the best thing to do, since I wouldn't have gotten it otherwise :P)

Dennis

:(

Alex A.

03:06

@Dennis Don't be sad, turn that frown upside down!

Dennis

(:

Alex A.

Haha

PhiNotPi

A question about Element!

Backticks are the only output method.

Alex A.

@Sp3000 ^^^

SphiNotPi3000

Sp3000

Ah, damn :P thanks

PhiNotPi

03:19

And there's no eval operator.

Sp3000

So no backtick = not Element, I guess then

Dennis

03:35

What is this? codu.org/eso

Alex A.

An annoying webpage.

Sp3000

Someone's collecting interpreters, I guess?

Dennis

It was my professional opinion that the programming world needed an esoteric object oriented programming language (other than Java of course).

Well, nimi already figured out Peter's (but can't post) and somebody has to crack yours...

UndefinedFunction

Java counts as esoteric? lol

Alex A.

@Dennis ಠ_ಠ

Doorknob

03:44

@AlexA. My code's probably not the best resource for that, since I have a lot to learn as well. But it's nice to know that I've helped someone, even a random stranger on the internet :)

Alex A.

@Doorknob Random stranger? I go with you on all of your family vacations, remember?

Doorknob

Ah right, how could I forget

Mauris

04:50

0

Q: Puzzle: Factor these 256-bit semiprimes

Challenge Write a program to factor these 10 numbers as quickly as possible: 15683499351193564659087946928346254200387478295674004601169717908835380854917 24336606644769176324903078146386725856136578588745270315310278603961263491677 39755798612593330363515033768510977798534810965257249856505320...

fastest-code primes number-theory

This question feels sort of... ugh.

"There's a trick to get the answer really fast, if you already know the answer. Now go find the answer really fast!"

Alex A.

Yeah

Reto Koradi

I don't really have any background. But a quick search for factorization algorithms listed a few that are efficient for numbers of special forms. I figure that these numbers fall under one of those?

Sp3000

Even Euler's factorisation method can be efficient for numbers of the right form. Having to find the common link between the given numbers isn't exactly my idea of fun though (maybe that's just me)

Mauris

Well, the first one is 123830525223423718982054269884856893727 * 126652934104061135988638942588043498971.

That looks, uh... not very promising. I figured that like, the primes would be hidden in the other numbers, or something

Reto Koradi

@Mauris How did you figure that out? I believe numbers where both factors are very similar were listed under the options that would be relatively easy to factorize.

Mauris

05:02

I simply ran PARI/GP on it for a couple of minutes :)

Reto Koradi

looks like you were not the only one. the solution for the first number was just posted in a comment

Doorknob

Note that the first digits are 1234567899 in order... not sure if that means anything or not

Alex A.

It means the end times are upon us.

Mauris

Glen O claims to know the secret.

Dennis

@Sp3000 Ninja'd. :P

Sp3000

05:10

Whitespace gives a lowercase w I believe

Dennis

No clue. Pasted into CJam, saw tabs, guessed Whitespace.

I really should have installed that language by now.

Sp3000

Tested on anarchy golf - it could have been an unintentional mistake though, because the BF is missing a comma

Reto Koradi

@Mauris Looks like this algorithm is good if both factors are similar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_factorization_method.

Dennis

That code is unlikely to get fixed, so I ninja'd you for nothing. :P

Sp3000

Oh well, you can have a solve :P Just need to get one of yours to make up for it

Alex A.

05:17

Dennis

OK, I just tested the other two Whitespace submissions. All three of them print a lowercase w in WS2JS!

Sp3000

Honestly, half the submissions are copied and pasted - I'm still surprised Shakespearer/Lua got so many upvotes

(or even Chef, which was straight copy as far as I can tell)

Alex A.

@Sp3000 There was nothing clever about the Chef one IMO.

Mauris

Early "silly" answer --> Hot Network Questions views --> free precious rep

4

Sp3000

05:38

@AlexA. I think your submission works in Foo

Alex A.

Shit, really?

What is this magical language where all submissions work??

Sp3000

(edit quick gogogo :P)

Alex A.

@Sp3000 Gives me "Stack is empty." four times before the correct output.

So I'd say it doesn't work in Foo. :D

Sp3000

That's STDERR though...

Alex A.

Does that matter? :/

/cc @MartinBüttner

Sp3000

05:43

Admittedly not my favourite default, but generally only STDOUT counts

(see some of Dennis' submissions)

Alex A.

I deleted it.

Mauris

I bet there's a shorter way to write "this number isn't huuuge" than s,50< in CJam...

Alex A.

I undeleted it. (Sorry @Dennis :/)

Mauris

I'm looking at 10^39 ish numbers, which aren't huuuge, and 10^77ish numbers, which are. Sadly not even KK# lands between those

1e50< works but pfffft.

Oh, never mind.

orlp

06:47

@Mauris by the way, before the GCD thing was posted I factored the numbers using msieve

took like 30 sec

randomra

07:01

in the language quiz: if the chosen language has some ambiguity in the wiki page (as it is often the case) can we assume that the exact specification is the one the linked interpreter uses?

orlp

@randomra I think it's silly to have anything but the interpreter be authorative

feersum

We should make some interpreters with even less relation to their respective language specifications to be prepared for future such challenges.

randomra

@orlp right, but using ill-defined features based on the interpreter doesn't seem a nice thing to do

but probably ok

orlp

@randomra consider the inverse

randomra

which is?

orlp

07:11

it would mean that whatever happens when you run the program in the interpreter is entirely irrelevant

since there might be some documentation that claims otherwise

feersum

Robbers should be allowed to abuse interpreters, but not cops.

randomra

well you could use programs which can be predicted from the wiki and the interpreter does the same output too

orlp

@feersum are cops allowed to sprinkle some crack?

feersum

?

Sp3000

When programming meets exercise.

5

randomra

07:19

@Sp3000 definitely the most original esolang I have seen :)

the quiz is really great for exploring the esolangs

Sp3000

I'm slowly getting through this list. Slowly...

feersum

how is your testing framework structured?

I assume it has to cut off a non-terminating or memory hogging program at some point

Sp3000

The question specifies a time limit, so I just have a timeout which I can bump up if I'm extra suspicious

feersum

no memory limit?

Sp3000

If you want to write a memory leaking Hello, World! that'll screw over my computer, be my guest :P

orlp

07:23

@feersum a time limit implies a memory limit too

RAM bandwidth * time

feersum

@orlp lol

I'd think with enough gibberish fed into stack language interpreters, one of them would eventually add stuff onto the stack in an infinite loop

orlp

@feersum this generalizes too

@feersum you can't have O(n^2) memory for an O(n) algorithm

(unless your base operation you measure time in is really, really weird)

feersum

no constant-time RAM allowed?

orlp

@feersum doesn't matter

try to think of an example algorithm that uses O(n^2) space but runs in O(n)

feersum

I could, that puts things into distant memory slots just for perversity

orlp

07:28

@feersum that doesn't increase memory usage

random-access memory does not imply a 1-to-1 memory mapping of addresses to physical memory

@feersum by your logic 64-bit architectures couldn't exist

feersum

I could have the problem: Input is N integers in the range (1, N^2). Output the first repeated number.

and use a size N^2 array to keep track of which numbers were seen

orlp

@feersum initializing that array is O(n^2)

feersum

hmm maybe we should have agreed on a machine model first.

orlp

@feersum I think it generalizes beyond machine models

@feersum you could implement the memory operations in terms of a hash table

to turn any sparse memory mapping into a dense one

in O(1)

feersum

but you don't know ahead of time which part of the memory will be used

orlp

07:40

@feersum that doesn't matter

a hash table can grow

feersum

differences between different polynomial times/spaces do depend on machine model

e.g. writing the algorithm in brainfuck would often make it asymptotically slower

orlp

well, we're assuming a random access memory model here

but regardless of memory model

do you agree with me that you can only touch O(<whatever>) memory in O(<whatever>) time?

feersum

sure

orlp

so, in non-random access memory models, the proof that it extended to memory usage is trivial

since the memory representation of what you touch can be made dense (e.g. a tape)

now, if an address can be represented in one word, this proof also extends to random access memory models

using a hash map

you could consider models in which a memory address can not be represented in one word, but I have no experience with such models at all, and I don't know if they're even useful

feersum

How could you guarantee that all the addresses don't have the same hash?

orlp

07:47

@feersum I remember a proof that involved a certain sequence of prime numbers as moduli

the amount of collisions you can create is arbitrary, but finite

so it would be a constant factor

feersum

If the hash table is of size N for N^2 possible addresses, I can find N addresses that map to the same bucket, no?

Peter Taylor

@AlexA. C's type system is garbage, and C++ doesn't fix that.

orlp

@feersum you can set up the hash table such that it will re-hash if there is more than a constant amount of collisions

@feersum although I might be confusing some things here

this might've been only for finite pre-determined memory spaces

feersum

and it rehashes a constant number of times? or what

orlp

@feersum let's back up a bit

Peter Taylor

07:53

@Sp3000 Yes, I figured that picking one which started Z would be a good idea.

orlp

@feersum you'll agree with me that using a balanced BST you can use a log(n) access memory model to make any memory sparse set of memory addresses dense, right?

feersum

yes

orlp

so, regardless of memory model, O(<whatever> / log(n)) time can not use more than O(<whatever>) memory

feersum

you mean vice versa?

orlp

yes, messed up division / multiplication

@feersum so the asymptotic bound is very tight, and in some memory models you can close the gap

@feersum I think I was wrong to assume you can do so in every one

Sp3000

08:21

@PeterTaylor I'll go all the way to Z if I have to, as long as I can get the interpreter working :P

(Expecting a "Surprise! It's not stack-based!" or something)

Mauris

08:48

@PeterTaylor: Thanks for the comment on my thingy in the Sandbox!

Martin Büttner

09:08

uhhhh

3

New Sandboxed Posts

09:35

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Up at 4 it's... code-golf Introduction On BBC Radio 2, on Saturdays there's a show hosted by Tony Blackburn called Pick of the Pops. Here, Tony selects a random week from a random year (in the range 1960-1989), and plays the songs which were in the top 20 charts at the time. Challenge Given ...

Soham Chowdhury

10:00

Long time no see, everyone. How's it going?

Optimizer

imgur.com/3TZEsSu [NSFW]

3

New Main Posts

0

Q: Magic: the Gathering Combat Golf

Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game where, among other things, players play cards representing creatures, which than attack the other player, or defend against the other player's attacks by blocking. In this code-golf challenge, your program will be in the place of a Magic player decidin...

code-golf game card-games

Soham Chowdhury

What about a KoTH based on this?
Every round is between, say, n bots. Everyone names a positive integer simultaneously. Everyone loses as many points as what they name, except the bot which names the second-highest integer, which gains that many points.

Perhaps we might restrict to 0 < n < 100.

Beta Decay

It's been a while since I've seen you around here :)

Soham Chowdhury

Indeed. I got heavily into doing math, actually. :)

isaacg

10:07

What about ties?

Beta Decay

I presume the bots are allowed to analyse the history of everyone else's bot's choices?

Soham Chowdhury

Perhaps they split the points?

@BetaDecay: yes.

Beta Decay

I could see that working

Only thing is that the KoTH craze has kind of passed... But that shouldn't be too much of a problem

Soham Chowdhury

I feel like an old man now.

Beta Decay

:D

Beta Decay

11:16

Optimizer

Thank you for specifically highlighting the otherwise obvious thing :P

Beta Decay

You never know... I could like cooking :P

isaacg

11:35

What would have to happen to make you like cooking?

trichoplax

@BetaDecay KotH's are due to return. I have a few building up in the sandbox.

Beta Decay

Could you link me to one? :)

trichoplax

meta.codegolf.stackexchange.com/…

:)

Beta Decay

Wow that's quite a few :D

trichoplax

11:51

Hopefully there will be a decision one way or another on the Computer Graphics private beta in the next few days, then I can focus on a KotH

Beta Decay

Mm I like the Flit idea

trichoplax

That was my first :)

I narrowed it down to that from a much more complex idea, and I like the fact that it is now very simple to explain, but still non-trivial to play well

Beta Decay

Haha a KotH should always have simple rules IMO

trichoplax

Yes I think that's important for participation - everyone loses if there's not enough participation

Beta Decay

I guess that's why RPSLV got such a large turnout

trichoplax

11:56

I focused on some others for a while because Block Building Bot Flocks came out while I was working on Flit, and some of the dynamics would be quite similar so I thought a long gap would be best

Beta Decay

Mm agreed.

trichoplax

The problem with RPSLV is that although it's simple to enter, there's not a great deal of room for developing advanced strategies. With Flit I'm hoping that answers will start off very simple but keep improving over time - I think there's potential for quite sophisticated approaches eventually

Beta Decay

While we're on the subject of KotH, do you have any idea why the OP of Stack Exchange Stock Exchange fell dead?

trichoplax

Did that make it to main? I seem to remember there being two stock exchange based ideas in the sandbox, and at least one of them got to main

Pyrrha

it did reach main

34

Q: Stack Exchange Stock Exchange ~ Revised

Background You are all traders for a slightly less than reputable stock firm. You all are part of a group of traders who focus only on one specific stock. Each hour each trader has a chance to Buy X stocks or Sell X stocks. There are 50 hours per round and 3 rounds per competition. At the end o...

king-of-the-hill

There was also an earlier one which was closed

3

Q: Stack Exchange Stock Exchange Tournament

Introduction Greetings fellow traders, you have just entered the Stack Exchange stock exchange. Here you will compete to earn the money by buying and selling shares (unfortunately, we only have the single market). Gameplay You will need to write a program that buys and sells shares. At the sta...

king-of-the-hill

I think the author fell dead because maintaining a KotH is more work than it looks

trichoplax

12:04

There seems to be another in the sandbox too:

Pyrrha

(unless it's a javascript only one)

trichoplax

3

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Realistic Stock Market This is based off of this other challenge, but with a whole lot of added realism. I'm trying to add as much realism as possible. It is a king-of-the-hill challenge. You are an entrepreneur in the stock market, having created your own hedge fund (correct term?). Your co...

@Pyrrha Yes I'm leaning towards a language specific KotH for my first one

By "fell dead" do you mean the leaderboard hasn't been updated, or that user has disappeared altogether?

Ah - last seen 6 months ago...

Beta Decay

Both really

trichoplax

They were quite low activity anyway, so that could still be a gap rather than a complete disappearance

Beta Decay

I see.

trichoplax

12:15

I've just read the comments and realised that the controller had to be rewritten since the game was flawed, and it doesn't look as if that was ever finished. Since this has never been a working KotH, I'd be inclined to close it to avoid duplicating any future, working KotHs.

3

Pyrrha

I agree with you there

Does closing something bump it?

Beta Decay

I think it might

What would be the close reason?

Pyrrha

maybe unclear?

Beta Decay

Yeah, I've gone with you

trichoplax

I went with unclear too

I've added a comment under the question since there was no reason field

Beta Decay

12:22

We just need two other people now :P

Pyrrha

We also have a precedent in the previous stock exchange question which was also closed for unclear

trichoplax

Hopefully this leaves the playing field clear for @PhiNotPi's sandboxed stock market KotH (no chance of being a duplicate)

Beta Decay

@Pyrrha Although that was unclear. I hadn't got the knack for question writing at that point :/

I also put more faith in PhiNotPi knowing what to do

trichoplax

I think once a question has one close vote, it goes to the review queue so reviewers will be asked to decide whether to close vote too.

Beta Decay

Only thing is that there, people may not see your comment

But hopefully people in chat will close vote when they see this

trichoplax

12:28

Yes - even with the one upvote it has it is still hidden

We can raise it later with other people who show up in chat

Beta Decay

Just point them to the starboard of need be

trichoplax

Yes that's handy - although that might have fallen off the starboard by then

Oh - thanks :)

Beta Decay

Haha no problem :)

Peter Taylor

@BetaDecay Ideally people who read the close and reopen queues should look at comments. But I strongly believe that sometimes they don't, because of the number of times I've seen questions reopened before all of the major problems pointed out in the comments have been fixed.

5

trichoplax

It's up to 4 close votes now.

Beta Decay

12:39

I guess the new one is thanks to Peter :)

trichoplax

I was about to ask Peter's feelings on this one since he was involved in trying to improve the controller at the time, but maybe that answers my question already...

Sp3000

Anyone here know Haskell and is willing to test something for me? :D

Beta Decay

No, sorry :D

trichoplax

I've heard that I should learn it, but I haven't...

isaacg

Thanks to me, actually

@Sp3000 I vaguely know Haskell

trichoplax

12:44

@isaacg The close vote?

isaacg

Yeah

trichoplax

In that case, @PeterTaylor, what are your feelings about this question which we've been discussing closing (since you were involved in trying to improve it last year)?

Sp3000

@isaacg I'm trying to test this language on Peter's submission, but I seem to be getting a warning which I'm not sure if it goes to STDOUT or STDERR

isaacg

OK, I'll take a look

Peter Taylor

@trichoplax Mainly frustration that OP disappeared from the face of the Earth after I put in at least 6 hours of work trying to improve the question

5

feersum

12:53

@Sp3000 Why don't you redirect one of STDOUT/STDERR to a file?

Sp3000

... oh, right. Forgot about that :P

I think it looks right

Beta Decay

@PeterTaylor Wow, I feel really sorry for you :o

isaacg

@Sp3000 I redirected STDERR away, same output

It works.

Sp3000

Yay :)

Thanks

Beta Decay

> Spectacular climbing, set in some of the grandest mountain scenery in Wales; slab-routes galore at every grade. Mainly multi-pitch routes to 160 metres.... Beware of falling sheep.

ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=496

trichoplax

13:00

Wow

@PeterTaylor I'm impressed that you still take the time to offer so many helpful comments after being hit with that

Peter Taylor

@Sp3000 :( Even my attempt to mislead by talking about Z wasn't enough.

New Main Posts

0

Q: Check all the keys of a keyboard

Write the shortest program that waits for every key of a standard US keyboard to be pressed and then exits writting OK! Every time a key is pressed the program displays on a new line the number of keys that need to be pressed until all key are pressed. Pressing same key twice should not disrupt...

code-golf

Sp3000

I actually did finish going through all of my list. But then there was a submission that made me think of Emmental, realised that wasn't it, then saw Mascarpone linked...

Beta Decay

Is that just a cheesy coincidence?

Sp3000

To make it cheesier: Enema is the other linked one on Emmental's page, and that's Dennis' :P

isaacg

13:18

I noticed, looking through grc's mystery langauge answer, that the "base64" string has nan and end embedded in it. Ring any bells?

Beta Decay

Nooope

New Main Posts

0

Q: Delegates and Events - Water Heater Problem

A Hotel room has a high-end water heater. When the water temperature exceeds a particular degrees,Water heater speaker announces the water temperature and the LCD displays the appropriate message. The user should enter the degree of the temperature where it starts to show the message. Write a p...

c#

New Main Posts

14:35

0

Q: Computing the geometric median

Given a list of integer points in an n-dimensional space, output the geometric median. Note that the output is not necessarily integer. Your answer must be precise to at least two digits after the decimal point. You may write a program or a function. You may take input and give output in any rea...

code-golf geometry

0

Q: Computationally Calculate Core Count

Almost all operating systems allow you to run multiple programs at the same time. If your system does not have enough processors to run all the programs you want to run, it starts to give each program just a tiny slice of time on the processor it runs on. This is normally not noticeable but can l...

popularity-contest concurrency

PhiNotPi

15:00

@BetaDecay @trichoplax I've cast the final close vote.

Doorknob

Hey here's a thing I didn't know until now. Ampersands are actually discouraged in site names.

This doesn't really affect us with our current name:

@Gilles No, we don't have plans to deampersand other existing sites. We're not looking to make disruptive changes to sites that already have names; just this small change to language sites and set some firmer guidelines for new sites. — Laura ♦ Nov 14 '13 at 21:05

but may affect our decision if we want to choose a new name.

> We should avoid having ampersands (and thus multiple topics) as much as possible, except where absolutely necessary for clarification purposes.

Beta Decay

@PhiNotPi Now you can go on to post your version

PhiNotPi

I still need to decide how dividends are going to work.

@BetaDecay Do you have any feedback for my sandbox post?

trichoplax

15:38

@PhiNotPi I was looking through your sandbox post again due to the other questions we were discussing, and I wondered how it would affect play if there was no dividing up of assets at the end, so the only direct benefit is the dividends. I don't know which would make for more interesting strategies, but that seems closer to the real world where companies don't tend to have an end date.

Also, what did you think about the suggestion of having non-player companies that can be invested in and pay out dividends based on some random function?

If there are a number of different NPCs and they each have a different random distribution in their profits, then strategies can focus on one that they think will suit them, or spread their risks according to which they consider most reliable

You could have one that fluctuates wildly so there's a good chance of both loss and profit, another that is fairly stable but has a small chance of having sudden drops, and others in between, maybe reflecting the distributions seen in different types of business in the real world

If the distribution is known to the answer writers, then they can try to build their strategy around their predictions of the resulting behaviour

PhiNotPi

I think I'll replace the complete redistribution at the end with dividends throughout the game.

trichoplax

16:16

Do you want the list of current orders to be visible to the players? I think Stock Exchanges tend to only show the spread (highest bid and lowest offer) but some places show the order book publicly so you can see what prices others are trying and how much they are trying to buy or sell.

I don't know which is best - just a decision to be considered...

PhiNotPi

I think I might just show the spread, because I think there have been problems in the past when argument strings get too long, such as listing out every order.

trichoplax

I guess that'll make the game go faster too, and it reflects real Stock Exchanges. Sounds good :)

Beta Decay

17:49

Evening, Martin

New Main Posts

0

Q: Distributing Numbers

Distributing Numbers Examples Input | Output -------------|------------- 23(12+42) | (23*12)+(23*42) 9(62-5) | (9*62)-(9*5) 4(17+8-14) | (4*17)+(4*8)-(4*14) 15(-5) | -(15*5) 2(3) | (2*3) 8(+18) | +(8*18) Invalid Inputs These are inputs you don't have ...

code-golf

TreFox

18:18

Does anyone know a good graphics library for Lua?

orlp

18:43

@xnor is a rate of convergence needed?

@xnor they show monotonic convergence, isn't that enough?

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