Macgyver's Toolbox

Wheat Wizard

00:46

Basic rules:

Each answer will get a "toolbox" that can be used to construct a program. The toolbox will consist of two things:

- a list of programming languages

- a list of valid characters

You must write a valid program in one of the languages provided using only the characters in the toolbox. Your program should output the number of answers already present on this question.

Once you have written and posted an answer the language and characters you have used will be removed from the toolbox and 1 new language and 16 new characters will be randomly added to be used as the toolbox for the next answer.

Current toolbox:
['shp', 'maverick', 'shtriped', 'octave', 'powershell-core', 'convex', 'fish-shell']
'\x03\x08\x0c\r\x10\x14\x15\x18\x1b\x1f#&-02;?AEIKLY\\]`aceghinoprtxz}'

If we had a space echo 0 would work in fish

Ah 0 on its own works in Octave

1. Octave 0 Try it online!

Current toolbox:
['shp', 'maverick', 'shtriped', 'powershell-core', 'convex', 'fish-shell', 'reticular']
"\x02\x03\x05\x08\x0c\r\x0f\x10\x14\x15\x18\x1a\x1b\x1d\x1f #$%&'+-0256;<=?AEFGIKLOQRSUXYZ\\]_`aceghinopqrstvwxz}~"

hm, The only one of these I know is fish

Phoenix

So this is an answer-chaining challenge?

Wheat Wizard

2. shp ;p Try it online!

@Phoenix Yes

Phoenix

What if the tollbox starts with every TIO lang, but a lang is removed after being used?

Wheat Wizard

Hm, thats an idea

but it would be really easy at first

Phoenix

Most asnwer-chaining questions are

Wheat Wizard

00:58

Thats true

Current toolbox:
['maverick', 'shtriped', 'powershell-core', 'convex', 'fish-shell', 'reticular', 'emmental']
"\x02\x03\x05\x06\x07\x08\x0c\r\x0e\x0f\x10\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x18\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f !#$%&'+,-0234569:<=?ABDEFGHIKLNOQRSUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijmnoqrstuvwxz|}~\x7f"

@Phoenix I feel like I like the toolbox feel of it, that you have to use what you got.

Phoenix

I think it still fits. You and your felllow PPCGers have a box of limited supplies, and you must try to make them last as long as you can.

Wheat Wizard

3. fish-shell echo 2 Try it online!

@Phoenix I have to think about it

If I can get some beta testers perhaps we can test it bot ways

Phoenix

Eventually only esolangs no one knows are left, and people struggle to keep the challenge afloat with Malbolge, Evil, Woefully, and Intercal

Wheat Wizard

Yeah. I do like that languages can come back too though

Current toolbox:
['maverick', 'shtriped', 'powershell-core', 'convex', 'reticular', 'reregex', 'beam']
"\x01\x02\x03\x05\x06\x08\t\x0b\x0c\r\x0f\x10\x11\x12\x14\x15\x16\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1f !#$%&'*+,-02568:<=>?ACDEFGHIJKLOPQRSTUXYZ[\\]^_`acegijlnqrstvwxz}~\x7f"

Phoenix

C (GCC), C(TCC), C(Clang)

Wheat Wizard

01:03

thats true

I think I need to add less characters every time, because I'm building up a lot of characters

Phoenix

Yeah

Wheat Wizard

New game, 15 characters each time

Current Toolbox:
['vala', 'bubblegum', 'picolisp', 'pip', 'octave', 'unlambda', 'sml-mlton']
'\x05\x12\x16")02;FWcefghijmnoprty{'

@Phoenix Thanks for the feedback!

Phoenix

As long as you get the number you're outputting, its very likely to also get a lang that just outputs a single number in its code to the screen directly.

Wheat Wizard

1. Octave 0 Try it online!

@Phoenix ^ would you look at that, Octave does that exact thing

Phoenix

And if you can get echo or print as well you're basically guaranteed to get an ez solution.

Wheat Wizard

01:09

Yeah, I want to prevent it from dying right out the gate

once those characters are used up it should get a bit harder

Current toolbox:
['vala', 'bubblegum', 'picolisp', 'pip', 'unlambda', 'sml-mlton', 'tcsh']
'\x04\x05\x06\n\x12\x15\x16\x19 "%)-2:;BFHIWcefghijmnoprsty{~\x7f'

@Phoenix Should I not give these to start you think?

Phoenix

IDK.

What will you do if someone gets an impossible toolbox early on?

Wheat Wizard

Probably restart

I want to prevent that

but with randomness there is no guarentee

I think this one has a good chance of being dead rn

Phoenix

What if you decreased the probability of unprintables being rolled?

Wheat Wizard

They decrease over time

because they tend to build up

perhaps I should just give a bunch of them to start?

That would give more useful characters in the beginning

Phoenix

Lemme reread the rules I don't think I'm clear on how the toolbox is given

Wheat Wizard

01:15

You get a new language and 15 new characters. The 15 new chars can't be already in the box

Phoenix

oic how it works

That's really clever

Wheat Wizard

what is?

Phoenix

Your challenge

Wheat Wizard

Ah, thanks!

Phoenix

Now that I fully get how it works

What if each time characters were added to the toolbox, one is a "free" character which can be anything.

Wheat Wizard

01:17

Hm, thats might be a good idea

or its like scrabble, where you can get a free tile

Phoenix

"free" characters could build up as long as no one uses them and then save the challenge through rolling 15 unprintables

Wheat Wizard

Yeah

I like that idea

can keep the challenge from being dead early on

It would suck if one person just used up all the free tiles though.

I think I'll add that Thanks!

Phoenix

@WheatWizard That's a risk in any answer-chaining, but hopefully people don't be dicks.

Wheat Wizard

@Phoenix How rare do you thing wild's should be

?

Phoenix

IDK, I GTG, sorry

Wheat Wizard

01:25

Ok np

Transcript for