Next contest

I had an idea for the next contest...

put in a extra rule: the script (.php file with comments and next line chars ) cannot be more then ... bytes

you will have to think of a maximum number of bytes and a contest that is suited for this sort of rule

you could also make light, medium, heavy and unlimited categories.

let me hear what you guys think of it, i think it would open up a new challange wich is always fun

Varan

I think this will only lead to uncommented unreadable sources..

One of the great things about these contests is that people can learn from other people's sources. Comments should be in there without penalty

Well, comments can be skipped, but I agree with Marcel. If a script can not be more than xxxx bytes, it will result in one-line scripts with variables like: $a, $b, $c...

I don't agree with anonymous.
The contest should not be focused on the size length (I also think it should not be based on the running time, but the time is a good tie-breaker).

Coding for this contest requires a lot of time if you intend to win, and reducing the size of the script is definitely not a good idea !
As Marcel and Jorgen pointed, it's really interesting to look at how other people participated to the contest (and this is very useful when you are a beginner, with the various scripts, from easy to hard to understand).

I think Matt already made the good choices, with a selection of contests that required ideas, instead of brute-force coding.
Improving our coding skill can only be achieved through the practice of algorithms.

About the contest rules, I think that there should be a fair scoring, then a tie-breaker (time or whatever) to avoid ex-aequos.

JC

I have seen such a contests, the goal there was to write a function with minimal length in "tokens", each word in the source code counting for one. But this is suitable only for small tasks and there was some really beautifull solutions out there.

I don't think such a rule here is a good one.

At first I thought this would be a good idea but now it seems it isn't so good. A word limitation would be better, but the best thing is no limitations at all.


And if Matt lacks ideas for the next contest I'd suggest that he has a look at this page:
http://acm.uva.es/p/v6/630.html

Not too difficult. In the other hand it might be too easy but perhaps by modifying it you could make it harder. What do you think?

I think it would be too easy, I mean, thats just me, the fact that I can kind of think up a soluition just by looking at it, trust me, if I can think up the answer, it must be really easy.

Yup, it's really easy (sort the letters in each word alphabetically, then sort these words, and look for consecutive same words)

Well ok it is easy. But maybe you could make it harder?

Give some ideas...just saying that it can be altered is not enough, come up with new ideas...

Finding contest ideas is pretty easy.
You can pick up one from POTM's or one from Mactech.
You can also take some ideas from puzzles competition:
http://www.otuzoyun.com/pqrst/

I especially like Puzzle 1 here:
http://www.otuzoyun.com/puzzledesign/puzzles.html
it's hard to code, but its 3D version is the object of a current (super-tough) contest !

A good problem is NP-complete, that is: it has no known solution in linear time.
A competition between programs on uncommon games (like the L-game from DeBono) could also be interesting.

I'm not too fond of contests which require dozens of hours to program, nor optimization or size reduction !
The winner should win with ideas, not brute-force.

JC

I got a super-hard algorithmic problem (that I got from the USA Computing Olympiad):

"
Farmer John has moved his K (1 <= K <= 30) milking machines out into the cow
pastures among the C (1 <= C <= 200) cows. A set of paths of various
lengths runs among the cows and the milking machines. The milking machine
locations are named by ID numbers 1..K; the cow locations are named by ID
numbers K+1..K+C.

Each milking point can "process" at most M (1 <= M <= 15) cows each day.

Write a program to find an assignment for each cow to some milking
machine so that the distance the furthest-walking cow travels is
minimized (and, of course, the milking machines are not overutilized).
At least one legal assignment is possible for all input data sets.
Cows can traverse several paths on the way to their milking machine.
"

I'm not sure I understand Webhappy's suggestion completely, but it sounds like a good start.

I liked puzzle 8 from http://www.otuzoyun.com/puzzledesign/puzzles.html

Maybe the grid size varies? The location and/or count of the "islands"? The contest then would be to come up with code to analyze the presented puzzle and cross from S to G with the best scoring results.

Maybe bonuses for lower line count or doubling points gained from turns, or both. IE -3 for each line segment, x2 at turning points, to encourage longer lines and the use of high-scoring turn points.

I have an idea for the (maybe next/next) contest:

making a program that generates gif/pdf etc. from the set of (predefined) algorithmic "commands".

For desired example output look at:

http://www.drostan.org/Application/webdev/uod/authproc.png

This would help making a documentation for many applications.

Best regards,
Piotr Klaban

but practical application programs are no fun