# Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

This "sandbox" is a place where Code Golf users can get feedback on prospective challenges they wish to post to main. This is useful because writing a clear and fully specified challenge on your first try can be difficult, and there is a much better chance of your challenge being well received if you post it in the sandbox first.

Sandbox FAQ

## Posting

Write your challenge just as you would when actually posting it, though you can optionally add a title at the top. You may also add some notes about specific things you would like to clarify before posting it. Other users will help you improve your challenge by rating and discussing it.

When you think your challenge is ready for the public, go ahead and post it, and replace the post here with a link to the challenge and delete the sandbox post.

## Discussion

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• Parts of the challenge you found unclear
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# Shortest JsFuck code for a number

JsFuck is a language using only []()!+ to run and express anything in JavaScript. Below is a simplified model of JavaScript to express numbers:

• Types
1. Number
2. String
3. Boolean (true)
4. Array
• Functions
• IEEEdouble(x):
• Let $$\u/extract_tex] is the number in $$\\{a\cdot 2^{b}|-2^{53}-1075, a,b\in \mathbb Z\}\$$ nearest to x, maximizing $$\b\$$ on tie • If $$\|u|<2^{1024}\$$, return $$\u\$$ • toNumber(x): • If x is a Number, return x; • If x is a Boolean, return 1; • If x is an Array [y], return toNumber(y); • If x is an Array [], return 0; • Otherwise, x is a String. In this case, • If x matches /^([\+\-]?(?:\d*\.?\d+|\d+\.))(?:e([\+\-]?\d+)?/, let $$\v=\text{＄1}\times 10^\text{＄2}\$$ (2 is zero if not present) • Return IEEEdouble($$\v\$$) • toString(x): • If x is a String, return x; • If x is a Boolean, return 'true'; • If x is an Array [y], return toString(y); • If x is an Array [], return ''; • Otherwise, x is a Number. In this case, • Find $$\p, q\in \mathbb Z\$$ such that IEEEdouble($$\p\times 10^q\$$)=x, maximizing $$\q\$$(there may be multiple $$\p\$$ satisfying the restriction, in which case choosing which one is unknown); • Let $$\y=p\times 10^q\$$; • If $$\y=0\$$ or $$\10^{-6}\leq|y|<10^{21}\$$, write it normally without scientific notation mapping the RegEx /^([1-9]\d*|0)(\.\d*[1-9])?/; • Otherwise, write it in scientific notation mapping the RegEx /^[1-9](\.\d*[1-9])?e[\+\-][1-9]\d*/ • x+y • If either x or y is a String or an Array, return toString(x) concatted with toString(y); • Otherwise, return IEEEdouble(the sum of toNumber(x) and toNumber(y)) • +x • Return toNumber(x) • [] and [x] • Return an Array. • x[y] • If x is a String, return the yth character(0-index) in x • !![] and !+[] • Return a Boolean A valid JsFuck code is always parenthesis balanced without two symbols + together. Expression in parenthesis is calculated before the one out. On the same layer operations go from left to right. You are required to output the shortest JsFuck code that generates a given IEEE double (A possible output of IEEEdouble). Shortest generator wins. It's fine if your generator runs slow, but beware of potential infinite loop if you eval. # Samples 1 -> +!![] 2 -> !![]+!![] 10 -> +[+!+[]+[+[]]] 1e10 -> +(+!![]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(+!![])+(+[])) 0.1 -> +((+(+!![]+[+!![]]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(!![]+!![])+(+[]))+[])[+!![]]+(+!![])) 1e-10 -> +((+(+!![]+[+!![]]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(!![]+!![])+(+[]))+[])[+!![]]+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+!![])) 5e-324-> +(!![]+!![]+!![]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(+((+(+!![]+[+!![]]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(!![]+!![])+(+[]))+[])[+!![]]+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+!![]))+[])[!![]+!![]]+(!![]+!![]+!![])+(!![]+!![])+(!![]+!![]+!![]+!![])) 9999999999 -> +(+!![]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(+!![])+(+[]))+(+((+((+(+!![]+[+!![]]+(!![]+[])[!![]+!![]+!![]]+(!![]+!![])+(+[]))+[])[+!![]]+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+[])+(+!![]))+[])[!![]+!![]]+(+!![])))  SN: Another way to ask is requiring to be testable and shouldn't be longer than a chosen generator • Challenge seems a bit too long-- maybe restrict the domain to integers? Also I can't see any competitive solution actually finishing for nontrivial test cases because they'd just eval all valid JSFuck strings in parallel. Jan 6, 2019 at 3:41 • @lirtosiast Do your "integer" mean safe integer? Also I don't see how it simplifies the problem much – l4m2 Jan 6, 2019 at 7:30 # Is it shifted? Consider a standard US-International QWERTY keyboard, without a numeric keypad, and Caps Lock mysteriously missing. < insert image > The goal is to write two programs or functions that take no input, and each give a distinct output through any default output method: Shift and No shift respectively. The program that outputs No shift has to be written without use of the ⇧ Shift key. The program that outputs Shift has to be written while holding the ⇧ Shift key throughout. Both programs have to be written using the exact same sequence of keypresses. A valid entry would be a1b2 + A!B@, if they output No shift and Shift respectively. The symbols allowed for the "No-shift" program are as follows: 1234567890-= qwertyuiop[]\ asdfghjkl;' zxcvbnm,./ <space> <newline> <tab>  The symbols allowed for the "Shift" program are as follows: ~!@#%^&*()_+ QWERTYUIOP{}| ASDFGHJKL:" ZXCVBNM<>? <space> <newline>  Note that Tab ↹ is missing, since Shift+Tab ↹ does not produce a \t tab symbol in most editors. ### Sandbox note I think using case-sensitive output makes the challenge more challenging, but it might become too challenging. What are your thoughts? • This already appears to be impossible in most productive languages, so I would allow output in any case. Jan 13, 2019 at 8:53 # Touch-typing distance Tags: , Related: Levenshtein distance There are many different string metrics, a simple one is the Levenshtein distance given by $$\\texttt{ld}_{a,b}(|a|,|b|)\$$: $$\texttt{ld}_{a,b}(i,j) = \begin{cases} \max(i,j), & \text{if i = 0 or j = 0} \\ \\ \min \begin{cases} \texttt{ld}_{a,b}(i-1,j) + c_\text{deletion} \\ \texttt{ld}_{a,b}(i,j-1) + c_\text{insertion} \\ \texttt{ld}_{a,b}(i-1,j-1) + w(a_i, b_j) \end{cases}, & \text{otherwise} \end{cases}$$ The avid reader may have noticed that there are missing pieces in the above definition, it makes use of a weight function $$\w\$$ which was never defined and the costs $$\c_\text{deletion}\$$ as well as $$\c_\text{insertion}\$$. The Levenshtein distance uses an indicator function which evaluates to $$\1\$$ if the two characters are not equal and $$\0\$$ otherwise and costs $$\1\$$ for deletion and insertion. This does not take into account that a mistake of typing u instead of w should cost more than mistakenly typing an e. Let's try to fix this! ## Challenge For this challenge we'll assume a QWERTY keyboard and only take lower-case letters into account. We will use the usual letter-to-finger assignment (left-most finger to right-most) ["qaz","wsx","edc","rtfgvb","yuhjnm","ik","ol","p"]: ### Left Hand • pinky: qaz • ring finger: wsx • middle finger: edc • index finger: rtfgvb ### Right Hand • index finger: yuhjnm • middle finger: ik • ring finger: ol • pinky: p Now, to define a new string metric we will use the following definitions in the above generalized Levenshtein distance: Set $$\c_\text{deletion} = c_\text{insertion} = 8\$$ and for $$\w(a_i,b_j)\$$ we will use the distance of the two characters plus $$\1\$$ according to the above assignments (unless they are equal, then we'll use $$\0\$$). Here are a few examples: 'q' 'q' -> 0 'q' 'a' -> 1 'q' 'w' -> 2 'l' 'g' -> 4 'p' 'a' -> 8  ## Rules Input will be two strings $$\a\$$ and $$\b\$$ which • are non-empty • only contain lower-case letters (ie. match ^[a-z]+) Output will be the "touch-typing distance" as defined above. ## Test cases "todo" "todo" → 0  # Shift right by half a bit code-golfmathnumberarithmetic The challenge is to implement a program or function (subsequently referred to as "program") that takes a nonnegative integer $$\n\$$ as input and returns $$\n\over\sqrt{2}\$$ (the input divided by the square root of two) as output, rounded to a nonnegative integer. You may take your input and output in any reasonable format; for example stdin/stdout, files, or arguments/return values would all be acceptable. You are required to use, at minimum, the largest fixed-size integer type offered by your language, and if an unsigned variant of this is available, you must use it. If your language has no built-in integer type (e.g. JavaScript) you are allowed to use its default numerical type (e.g. floating point); for languages with no concept of a number (e.g. regex), input and output can be e.g. the length of a string. It is not required to reject negative integers; a submission that returns correct answers for negative inputs is allowed, but not required. Undefined behavior with negative inputs is allowed. You are allowed and encouraged to use arbitrary-precision integer types if you so desire, but the type must either be a built-in, part of a standard library, or implemented from scratch in your program. Despite what the title might imply, you may use any rounding algorithm you want (floor, ceiling, nearest half up, nearest half even, arbitrary, or even random), as long as the difference between the integer returned value and the theoretical exact (irrational) value is always less than $$\1\$$ for all inputs that fit in your chosen integer type. All inputs up to the maximum representable value must return a correct output. In a way, the job of this program is to calculate the irrational number $$\\sqrt{2}\$$ to the requested precision, presenting it in the form of an integer. This is why solutions using arbitrary-precision types are encouraged, but not required. This is a challenge. Standard loopholes are denied. The program with the least number of bytes wins. If there's a tie, the choice of accepted answer will be at my discretion. That said, this challenge is not only about which answer wins; it's also about seeing how concisely the challenge can be solved in each language, and seeing how each language "prefers" to handle rounding. And for those submissions that choose to use arbitrary precision, it's about seeing how concisely this can be done in the language. # Meta The primary reason for the question is that I want to post my ECMAScript regex solving it. Currently all I have is an 849 byte (very heavily golfed down from an initial 1159 bytes) ECMAScript + molecular lookahead regex, i.e. not purely ECMAScript-compatible and only works on my regex engine, so this question can stew in the Sandbox for a while until I port the regex to pure ECMAScript at some point, and/or put the regex engine on TIO. That said, I am genuinely interested in what submissions PPCGers will come up with for this challenge (including in the languages more frequently seen in PPCG posts), and will treat the hosting of it seriously. Also there's the chance that someone will attempt solving it in a more powerful regex flavor, and I'd be fascinated to see if this could be done in significantly less length than ECMA (I actually doubt it can). Or somebody could come up with a crazy solution for it in some other language that has limits imposed which make it hard to do. And if somebody could think of a way to solve it in ECMA in fewer bytes than I have (or even just golf down my regex), that would be fascinating (or thrilling) as well. I'd be interested in putting up a bounty for the regex aspects of this question, and would appreciate any suggestions people would have as to how to do this and how much the bounty should be. • The whole stuff about type widths is confusing and I think it gets self-contradictory. E.g. "You are required to use an integer type of at least the precision of a native int. If your language has a native unsigned integer type, you must use it (if you're using a native type)". Java has signed 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-bit integers, and unsigned 16-bit integers. Which should it use? What does "native int" even mean in the context of languages which aren't C? Why should I get a better score in C if I'm using an underpowered computer which doesn't distinguish between uint and long long uint? Jan 26, 2019 at 9:11 • @PeterTaylor What I'm really trying to achieve with that requirement is increasing the likelihood that in at least some languages, simply calculating it using floating point, e.g. convert the int to double, divide by sqrt(2) and convert back to int, would lose precision, making it necessary to implement the sqrt function in integer math. But I wanted to not actually prohibit floating point from being used. I agree with your criticism though. What if I simply require that the largest built-in fixed-size integer type be used at minimum if it exists (or arbitrary-precision if desired)? Jan 26, 2019 at 10:13 • Thanks for explaining your goal. I'll think about it and see whether I can think of another way of achieving it. If you haven't already done it, you could pop into chat and ask the people there to think about it too. Jan 26, 2019 at 20:00 • Thank you, @PeterTaylor. I actually did talk about it a bit in the chat earlier, which is actually why I required native ints in the original version... Jan 26, 2019 at 20:20 • I hadn't noticed your edit. That's probably as good a solution as is possible. One other minor suggestion: how about changing the title to "Shift right by half a bit"? Jan 27, 2019 at 8:30 • @PeterTaylor I love your title suggestion. Thank you so much! I kept the text "divide by the square root of two" and moved it to the description, in case of Math Processing Errors and also so it will show up in searches more easily. Jan 27, 2019 at 8:53 • Can you add some test cases? Jan 27, 2019 at 15:37 # Irregular English Verbs Given the infinitive of an irregular English verb, output its simple past and its past participle. ## Rules • The input and output can be given in any convenient format. • No need to handle verbs not in the given list. • Either a full program or a function are acceptable. If a function, you can return the output rather than printing it. • If possible, please include a link to an online testing environment so other people can try out your code! • Standard loopholes are forbidden. • This is so all usual golfing rules apply, and the shortest code (in bytes) wins. ## Example fall --> fell; fallen beat --> beat; beaten or beat bereave --> bereaved or bereft; bereaved or bereft shall --> should;(no participle)  # List of Irregular Verbs Infinitive;Simple Past;Past Participle alight;alighted or alit;alighted or alit arise;arose;arisen awake;awoke or awaked;awoken or awaked be;was or were;been bear;bore;borne or born beat;beat;beaten or beat become;became;become beget;begot;begotten begin;began;begun bend;bent;bent bereave;bereaved or bereft;bereaved or bereft beseech;besought or beseeched;besought or beseeched bet;bet or betted;bet or betted bid;bade or bid;bidden or bid or bade bide;bade or bided;bided bind;bound;bound bite;bit;bitten bleed;bled;bled bless;blessed or blest;blessed or blest blow;blew;blown break;broke;broken breed;bred;bred bring;brought;brought broadcast;broadcast or broadcasted;broadcast or broadcasted build;built;built burn;burnt or burned;burnt or burned burst;burst;burst bust;bust or busted;bust or busted buy;bought;bought can;could;(no participle) cast;cast;cast catch;caught;caught choose;chose;chosen cleave;cleft or cleaved or clove;cleft or cleaved or cloven cling;clung;clung clothe;clothed or clad;clothed or clad come;came;come cost;cost;cost creep;crept;crept crow;crowed;crew or crowed cut;cut;cut deal;dealt;dealt dig;dug;dug do;did;done draw;drew;drawn dream;dreamt or dreamed;dreamt or dreamed drink;drank;drunk drive;drove;driven dwell;dwelt or dwelled;dwelt or dwelled eat;ate;eaten fall;fell;fallen feed;fed;fed feel;felt;felt fight;fought;fought find;found;found flee;fled;fled fling;flung;flung fly;flew;flown forbid;forbad or forbade;forbid or forbidden forecast;forecast or forecasted;forecast or forecasted forget;forgot;forgotten forsake;forsook;forsaken freeze;froze;frozen geld;gelded or gelt;gelded or gelt get;got;got or gotten gild;gilded or gilt;gilded or gilt give;gave;given gnaw;gnawed;gnawed or gnawn go;went;gone grind;ground;ground grip;gripped or gript;gripped or gript grow;grew;grown hang;hung;hung have;had;had hear;heard;heard heave;heaved or hove;heaved or hove hew;hewed;hewed or hewn hide;hid;hidden or hid hit;hit;hit hold;held;held hurt;hurt;hurt keep;kept;kept kneel;knelt or kneeled;knelt or kneeled knit;knitted or knit;knitted or knit know;knew;known lay;laid;laid lead;led;led lean;leant or leaned;leant or leaned leap;leapt or leaped;leapt or leaped learn;learnt or learned;learnt or learned leave;left;left lend;lent;lent let;let;let lie;lay;lain light;lit or lighted;lit or lighted lose;lost;lost make;made;made may;might;(no participle) mean;meant;meant meet;met;met melt;melted;molten or melted mow;mowed;mown or mowed pay;paid;paid pen;pent or penned;pent or penned plead;pled or pleaded;pled or pleaded prove;proved;proven or proved put;put;put quit;quit or quitted;quit or quitted read;read;read rid;rid or ridded;rid or ridded ride;rode;ridden ring;rang;rung rise;rose;risen run;ran;run saw;sawed;sawn or sawed say;said;said see;saw;seen seek;sought;sought sell;sold;sold send;sent;sent set;set;set sew;sewed;sewn or sewed shake;shook;shaken shall;should;(no participle) shear;sheared;shorn or sheared shed;shed;shed shine;shone;shone shit;shit or shitted or shat;shit or shitted or shat shoe;shod or shoed;shod or shoed shoot;shot;shot show;showed;shown or showed shred;shred or shredded;shred or shredded shrink;shrank or shrunk;shrunk shut;shut;shut sing;sang;sung sink;sank;sunk sit;sat;sat slay;slew;slain sleep;slept;slept slide;slid;slid sling;slung;slung slink;slunk;slunk slit;slit;slit smell;smelt or smelled;smelt or smelled smite;smote;smitten sow;sowed;sown or sowed speak;spoke;spoken speed;sped or speeded;sped or speeded spell;spelt or spelled;spelt or spelled spend;spent;spent spill;spilt or spilled;spilt or spilled spin;spun;spun spit;spat;spat split;split;split spoil;spoilt or spoiled;spoilt or spoiled spread;spread;spread spring;sprang or sprung;sprung stand;stood;stood steal;stole;stolen stick;stuck;stuck sting;stung;stung stink;stank or stunk;stunk stride;strode;stridden strike;struck;struck string;strung;strung strive;strove;striven swear;swore;sworn sweat;sweat or sweated;sweat or sweated sweep;swept;swept swell;swelled;swollen or swelled swim;swam;swum swing;swung;swung take;took;taken teach;taught;taught tear;tore;torn telecast;telecast or telecasted;telecast or telecasted tell;told;told think;thought;thought throw;threw;thrown thrust;thrust;thrust tread;trod;trodden understand;understood;understood wake;woke or waked;woken or waked wear;wore;worn weave;wove;woven wed;wed or wedded;wed or wedded weep;wept;wept wet;wet or wetted;wet or wetted win;won;won wind;wound;wound wring;wrung;wrung write;wrote;written  • So this is a simple lookup, meaning that the bulk of the challenge is compressing the data? – Adám Jan 24, 2019 at 12:48 • Shouldn't the correct output from can be could;was able to rather than could;(kein Participle)? – Adám Jan 24, 2019 at 12:49 • @Adám what about simply can -->could; ? Jan 24, 2019 at 12:54 • Up to you. Using (kein Participle) makes the challenge more interesting, as it has the only uppercase character, and the only parentheses. – Adám Jan 24, 2019 at 14:02 • @Adám, no. It should be could or was able to or were able to;been able to. It certainly shouldn't be (kein Participle): the spec asks for output in English, not German. Jan 24, 2019 at 15:04 • @PeterTaylor OP hasn't answered, but to me it looks like lookup KC, so the actual content doesn't actually matter. – Adám Jan 24, 2019 at 16:59 • @Adám Yes, I think it's a simple lookup, it can be other than that? Jan 28, 2019 at 10:39 • Imho, it would be much more interesting to take a regular verb as input, and output the past tense: Add "ed" or "d" if verb ends with "e", but change final consonant-"y" to "consonant-"i" and insert "k" if verb ends in "c" and double final consonant if verb ends with a single vowel followed by a single consonant. – Adám Jan 28, 2019 at 13:04 • Suggested tag: kolmogorov-complexity Jan 28, 2019 at 13:19 • @Adám Do u mean adding the rules, or extending the current list with some regular verbs? Jan 28, 2019 at 14:00 • I meant replacing the list, so the challenge will only concern completely regular verbs. It is of course your choice. I can also post this related (but not really related, just inspired by) challenge myself. Let me know. – Adám Jan 28, 2019 at 14:39 • @Adám Using only regular verbs would make it a very different challenge. I think this one is interesting as-is. Even if these verbs are irregular, they do follow some rules of their own (such as i becomes u). You may want to identify and store the transformation rules that are common to several verbs rather than just do string compression. Feb 5, 2019 at 23:21 • @Arnauld can I use your comment to improve the text of the challenge? Feb 6, 2019 at 12:00 • Sure. (But maybe you should use a better example than just 'i becomes u' and make it clear that this is not a general rule but just a rule that applies to several verbs.) Feb 6, 2019 at 13:53 # Generate a 3D spiral Inspired by this chat message The spiral used in The Path Of The Wildebeest is a contiguous mapping of the positive integers to lattice points in 2D. Your task is to generalize this to 3D. Specifically, create a function $$\f\$$ from $$\\mathbb Z^+\$$ to $$\ \mathbb Z^3\$$ with the following properties: • $$\f\$$ is a bijection (All points are eventually reached). • $$\f(1) = (0,0,0)\$$ (The spiral starts at the origin). • $$\ |f(n+1) - f(n)| = 1\$$ (The spiral is contiguous). • The Chebyshev distance from the origin $$\ |f(n)|_\infty \$$ is a nondecreasing function ($$\f\$$ fills all points in each concentric cubical shell $$\k\$$ before moving to shell $$\k+1\$$). One possible $$\f\$$ is given by this Python implementation, but any $$\f\$$ that satisfies the above properties is allowed. Please describe the function your answer generates. Because all your computer's memory is taken up by the wildebeest simulation you're running, typing is very slow, so your code must be as short as possible. ### I/O As is standard with questions, either 1-indexing or 0-indexing is allowed. Any of these I/O formats are acceptable: • Receive $$\n\$$ as input and output the $$\n\$$th point in the sequence • Receive $$\n\$$ as input and output the first $$\n\$$ points • Take no input and output the sequence infinitely. • Editing this from "is an increasing function" to "is a nondecreasing function" doesn't fix the problem... the function will sometimes have to decrease, because it has to hop over its own path and come back down. If you're already taking this into account, could you please be clearer about what you mean? Jan 30, 2019 at 1:40 • @Deadcode I'm not sure what you mean by hopping over its own path. This challenge is just to generate the spiral, not the path of any chess piece. Jan 30, 2019 at 1:45 • Okay, imagine an actual ball of yarn. But to simplify things, let's imagine you start with a sphere. Start wrapping a string around it. After you make 1 revolution, you must adjust the angle of the string so that it crosses over its previous path. This will make a small bump in the path the string takes on its 2nd revolution. And on its 3rd revolution, there will be more bumps. Now imagine the analogy with a cube, quantizing the path to a cubical grid. The 2nd revolution will have to cross over the path the 1st revolution took, making a bump, 1 up, 1 down. Jan 30, 2019 at 1:56 • I think in the cubical case, the path of the yarn can be arranged such that it never goes over bumps. Jan 30, 2019 at 1:58 • Okay, but then it will bear much less resemblance to a ball of yarn. Jan 30, 2019 at 2:04 • @Deadcode the key point here is that it's the Chebyshev distance that's non-decreasing. So the 3d lattice is divided into cubic shells centered on the 0 point, and the function has to map to all of the points in shell n before moving on to shell n+1 Jan 30, 2019 at 21:37 • (in that sense it's analogous to the 2d case) Jan 30, 2019 at 21:41 • You can remove the backticks before and after the list then select it and press Ctrl + K, it will show as a single block of code then Apr 19, 2018 at 13:59 • @user202729 This isn't a KC because an answer to the challenge should accept inputs. Nov 19, 2018 at 8:05 # Least efficient field order ## Background: In C and other languages, a struct is a data type composed of fields of other data types. These fields may be different sizes (in bytes) and may have different alignment requirements (e.g. an int field may need to be on a 4-byte boundary). Padding is added to a struct to keep all of its fields aligned, and to keep its size a multiple of each field's alignment. For example: struct test { char a; // 1-byte, 1-byte aligned short b; // 2-byte, 2-byte aligned int c; // 4-byte, 4-byte aligned } In this struct, there will be 1 byte of padding after a (to keep b on a 2-byte boundary), no padding after b (as c is already on a 4-byte boundary) and no padding after c (as the size is already a multiple of 2 and 4 bytes), so the total size of the struct is 8 bytes (1 + 2 + 4 + 2). However, if we rearrange the order of the fields, the struct size can be bigger. struct test_2 { char d; // 1-byte, 1-byte aligned int e; // 4-byte, 4-byte aligned short f; // 2-byte, 2-byte aligned } In this struct, there will be 3 bytes of padding after d (to keep e on a 4-byte boundary) and there will be 2 bytes of padding after f (to keep the size a multiple of 2 and 4 bytes), so the total size of this struct is 12 bytes (1 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 2). ## Challenge: Given a list of pairs of positive integers (each pair representing the size and alignment of a field), return the same pairs in an order such that a struct with fields in that order would require the most padding, i.e. be the least space-efficient. Givens: • A field's size will always be greater than or equal to its alignment. (e.g. (4, 8) is not a valid input pair) • A field's size will always be a multiple of its alignment. (i.e. (12, 5) is not a valid input pair) Test cases: (other outputs that give the same total size are valid as well) [(1, 1), (1, 1), (4, 4)] -> [(1, 1), (4, 4), (1, 1)] # size 12 [(12, 4), (1, 1), (2, 2), (8, 8)] -> [(12, 4), (8, 8), (1, 1), (2, 2)] # size 32 [(7, 7), (5, 1), (2, 2)] -> [(7, 7), (2, 2), (5, 1)] # size 28 [(6, 6), (6, 3), (4, 2), (2, 2)] -> [(6, 3), (4, 2), (6, 6), (2, 2)] # size 24 [(1, 1)] -> [(1, 1)] # size 1  Test case checker online! • I think in your explanation (1 + 2 + 4 + 2) should be (1 + 2 + 4 + 1). The only thing I see about this challenge that is questionable is whether having separate alignments is interesting or tedious. Would this lose much by assuming each field's alignment is equal to its size? Feb 25, 2019 at 21:25 # The Minigame Challenge The idea of this CnR is fairly simple: The Cops must create a simple minigame (explained in more detail below), with a definite goal. That goal may or may not be achievable. The Robbers must then either complete the minigame, or prove its goal is not achievable. ## Rules ### The Minigame The Cops will create a suitably simple minigame with a definite goal. Acceptable minigame examples are functions that take some input and return some output, with the goal being to either achieve a specific output, or make the program terminate or error. Minigames considered complex (and thus unnacceptable) would be programs/functions that will never terminate in up to 60s (using TIO as a benchmark here), or that simulate complex games (such as blackjack, chess, etc). ### Note: I'll try to expand further on what kinds of minigames are acceptable or not. Suggestions are appreciated. ### Cops: The Cops must provide one of the following: • A solution for your minigame that achieves the goal, or • A proof that the goal for your minigame is not achievable. at least 7 days (168h) after the answer was posted for their answer to be considered safe. If your minigame's goal is achievable, it must always be achievable, and it must not contain "insider information", such as a fixed seed for a pRNG, or pregenerated primes as factors of a number to be factored. ### Robbers: To crack an (unsafe) answer, the robber must provide either a solution to the minigame that achieves the stated goal, or a proof that the goal is not achievable. ### Scoring: Cops will be scored based on standard rules, with the fewest number of bytes in an answer being better. Cracked answers will always have a score of $$\\infty\$$. Robbers are scored according to the number of answers they've cracked. Standard loopholes are, as usual, forbidden. # Challenge is still under construction This is the first CnR I've ever come up with. Suggestions and observations are always appreciated. • This seems a lot like PCG inside PCG. Mar 15, 2019 at 19:16 # Challenge Create a function takes in two 2-dimensional arrays of Characters (or Strings if the programming language does not have characters as a datatype) as inputs: a and b. Your task is to determine if b contains a. If this is so, return true. Otherwise, return false. ## Sample Test Cases a: 123 456 789  b: 123 456 789  should return true. a: code golf  b: thisis code!! golf!! ohyeah  should return true. a: abcd efgh ijkl  b: abcdef ghijkl mnopqr  should return false. Least bytes wins. • does the block need to be as-is? No lines inbetween? No characters? i.e. does code\golf appear in code!!\trucking!!\golf!!? – Ven Mar 25, 2019 at 11:04 (No title yet) I'm traveling away from home, and while visiting a fair a dart-throwing game catches my eye. To play, I can buy $$\d\$$ darts at a time. There are no other options for purchase. There are $$\t\$$ identical targets, but since I'm not a great shot, I can't consistently aim at just one. Instead, I can hit one (at random) with nonzero probability $$\p\$$. Of course, just to make it harder for me management also decided it would be too easy if players won a prize immediately upon hitting a target. Rather, I need to hit the same target $$\n\$$ times in order to get the prize. As long as I keep playing, darts that have already landed on targets will remain there, but if I leave, they will be reset. I'd rather not be scammed though, so I would like to know how many times I should expect to purchase darts in order to win at least one prize. ## Task Given $$\d\$$, $$\t\$$, $$\p\$$, and $$\n\$$, find the expected cost for me to get at least one prize. ### Test cases (just some basic ones, for now)  d, t, p, n -> E __, __, __, 1 -> 1/(1-(1-p)^d) __, __, 1, __ -> t*n  ## Comments Any suggestions to improve wording or formatting? Is anything unclear or confusing? Would it be more interesting to ask for the expected cost to get at least $$\x\$$ prizes, instead? In that case, a target would award a prize for every $$\n\$$ darts landed, i.e. at $$\n,2n,3n,\ldots\$$ darts. What level of accuracy should be required? Ideas for test cases? Not entirely sure what other tag(s) I'd like to work with here. Golf should be interesting... I'd also like to see faster solutions though, and I would expect golfy solutions to be very inefficient. # Finding Points in Convex Hulls Convex hulls are notoriously hard to deal with, so today's challenge will deal with a relatively simple premise: given a convex hull defined by a set of points, and an additional point, find whether the additional point lies in the hull. Now, for some definitions 1. The convex hull of a finite set X, a subset of R^n, is the set of convex combinations of points of X. 2. A convex combination of points x1,x2,...,xn is a point of the form a1x1+a2x2+...+anxn such that all ai>=0 and the sum of all of the ai is 1. # Input/Output The input is rather flexible, as long as it contains the appropriate information to express the convex hull and additional point. An example of a valid input format to express the convex hull represented by (0,1,2),(4,3,2),(8,8,8) and the point (5,5,5) is ([(0,1,2),(4,3,2),(8,8,8)],(5,5,5))  The output is a truthy/falsy value, depending on whether the point is contained in the hull. # Remarks There are a lot of packages and libraries that deal with convex hulls, such as scipy.spatial. Such libraries/packages are explicitly banned. Libraries that facilitate matrix computations, such as numpy, are permitted. The winning criterion is . There is no limit on the number of dimensions the points can lie in, as long as they all lie in the same number of dimensions. # Test Cases I will be using the following tio link for testing the validity of solutions. Some smaller test cases: ([(1,1)],(1,1)) - True ([(1,1)],(1,2)) - False ([(1,1,1),(3,3,1)],(2,3,1)) - False ([(1,1,1),(3,3,1)],(2,2,1)) - True ([(0,0),(3,3),(0,6)],(2,4)) - True ([(0,0),(3,3),(0,6)],(1,1)) - True ([(0,0),(3,3),(0,5)],(2,4)) - False  # Questions for Sandbox Is code golf the best criteria for this? That might encourage brute force searches on every combination of points... any suggestions? • You mention R^n but all the examples use Z^n (which is much easier to work with computationally). Please clarify the expected input. Also, what about libraries for linear programming? Apr 1, 2019 at 10:03 • @PeterTaylor I was thinking of making it R^n only, since one can bash out the answer if it is in Z^n. And, linear programming libraries probably also should be banned. Apr 1, 2019 at 13:08 • I'm not sure how easy it is to bash out the answer. The weights could be rational, and it's not obvious to me that the denominators can be bounded because the entire system can be translated. Apr 1, 2019 at 20:35 • @PeterTaylor Hmm, I'll think about how to revise this. Apr 1, 2019 at 22:05 This is a post to pre-test for a duplicate question before I spend the time to finish the full post and add test cases. So, have we ever had a question for a "snake rotation" of a matrix:  +--------------+ 1 2 3 4 5| +------------ | |10 9 8 7 6| | +-----------+ |11 12 13 14 15 +--------------+ +--------------+ --> 13 14 15 1 2| +------------ | | 7 6 5 4 3| | +-----------+ | 8 9 10 11 12 --> +--------------+  The ascii walls are there only for clarity. Actual input/output would be normal matrices # WordArt reader I've decided to leave this very open ended, so that I can write it based on community input. There are a lot of questions in the bottom. All feedback is appreciated, even minor suggestions/comments. :) Did you know WordArt is still a thing in MS Word? Let's parse it! (I'll remove the Swag format) The challenge will contain a test battery with X jpg.files each with a word or sentence shown in WordArt. Your task is to parse as many as you can. The winner will be the submission that correctly parses the most images, with date stamp being the tie breaker. ### Sandboxing: • Good idea or not? • Should there be many different styles, or should I stick to one? Colors? Shade/mirroring? • How many test cases? • Is jpg the best format (it was used in the Upgoat/Downgoat challenge) • Should I have a more refined scoring mechanism? It's hard to mix two quantities into one score. • Should I stick to just letters / alphanumeric / all printable ASCII / multiple lines? Long sentences or single words? • Orientation? Waves? Circular? • Resolution? • Builtin functions? • Should I require a complete match of images, or character by character? • Nice challenge! 1 WordArt is a completely objective (good) definition. 2 Some of the questions was mainly for the problem of the challenge being "too hard", so if you want any answer at all you should simplify those. (somehow most PPCG users are lazy). 3 Format is not a very important problem (conversion is easy), but just to be sure, use a lossless format. Nov 7, 2017 at 16:48 • There is another problem of the font used. Nov 7, 2017 at 16:49 • The challenge is supposed to be hard. Scoring based on the success rate would be useless if not. But it's of course possible to change the scoring, and make the test cases easier. Nov 7, 2017 at 17:00 • 1. optical-char-recognition. 2. Upgoat/Downgoat used JPG because it used photos. IMO it's preferable in general to allow any raster image format, because otherwise you pretty much force people to use languages with library support for image decoding. 3. The "Swag" example is ambiguous: is it "Swag Swag"? 4. If you want to refine the scoring mechanism, I would do it as the sum of Levenshtein distances from the correct results. But the big problem with scoring test-battery is the tension between keeping the tests secret (to prevent overfitting) and public (for objective scoring). Nov 8, 2017 at 7:25 • 3. I can avoid the Swag-type format. Are the other formats unambiguous? 4. I can either show all the possible formats, and say that I will use words that are say 4-15 characters, or maximum 15 characters per example. I can then pre-select the input list, and provide a hash that ensures I won't change the input list after answers are posted. People can then try their code on some random strings of their own choosing on various formats and approximate their results, while the final score is made public later...? May 22, 2019 at 6:43 • Thanks for the link to the other challenges, they are useful as references when writing this challenge. Do you think this is different enough by the way? May 22, 2019 at 6:58 # How many right triangles can you find? # Challenge You will be given an input represented by x, which is a string containing at least 3 characters. It will consist only of the standard numeric characters, 0 through 9. Your job is to find and output how many right triangles can be formed with the given numbers. # Rules • Numbers must be kept in the order they were given in. No mixing them up! • The numbers for each right triangle must be consecutive. • The order of numbers has to be a first, b second, and c third, and must satisfy the formula a² + b² = c². a can be greater than or less than b, as long as it satisfies the formula. • Decimal points may be added between any numbers. • Decimals require one or more numbers to be placed before them, e.g. .5 cannot be used as a number but 0.5 and 12.5 can. • Decimals with at least 4 digits after the decimal point truncated to the third digit, e.g. 1.2345 would truncated to 1.234 and 1.9999 would be truncated to 1.999. • Numbers can be used more than once in 2 or more different triangles, but cannot be used multiple times in the same triangle. • Multiple representations of the same value can count multiple times. • Repeating zeros are allowed, e.g. 000.5 counts as a number. • All possible combinations must be taken into account for your program to be valid. # Example Inputs and Outputs Input: 345 Output: 1 This can be split into 3, 4, and 5, which, of course, form a right triangle. Input: 534 Output: 0 While this does include the necessary numbers to form a right triangle, they are not in the correct order. It has to follow the formula a² + b² = c², but in this case it follows c² = a² + b². The order of numbers cannot be changed from the original input, so in this case no right triangles can be formed. Input: 3415 Output: 0 This does contain a 3, 4, and a 5, which can form a right triangle, but they are not consecutive; there is a 1 splitting the 5 from the 3 and 4. Input: 5567507 Output: 1 Because decimals can be added anywhere, it can be changed to 55.67.507, which allows splitting it into 5, 5.6, and 7.507 to form a right triangle. Remember that decimals are truncated to the third digit after the decimal point, which is how we get 7.507. Input: 345567507 Output: 2 The first right triangle is formed by 3, 4, and 5. The second one is formed by 5567507 (read the previous example for explanation). Numbers can be used more than once, so the first 5 was used in the first and second triangles. Input: 51125 Output: 0 Because of rule 5, you cannot use .5, 1, and 1.25. An integer is required before .5 for it to work. Input: 051125 Output: 0 Unlike the previous example, there is a number before the first 5, so it is now legal to use 0.5, 1, and 1.25. Input: 121418439 Output: 2 The numbers 12 and 14 would form a right triangle where side c has a length of approximately 18.43908891458577462000. Because long decimals are truncated to the third digit after the decimal point, we would be left with 18.439. This fits in with the original input, 121418439. Additionally, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.843 counts as a separate combination, thus giving us our second right triangle. Input: 10011005 Output: 8 Numbers count separately if they're represented in different ways, so this allows for (1, 00, 1), (1.0, 0, 1), (1, 0, 01), (1, 0.01, 1), (1, 0.01, 1.0), (1, 0.01, 1.00), (1.0, 0.1, 1.005), and (1, 00.1, 1.005). This is code golf, so shortest answer in bytes wins. Good luck! • So if I understand correctly we do the following things: get all substrings of the input; get all 3-part partitions of each substring; insert a comma at each possible position in each possible partition; check any combination of three in order is approximately truthy for \a^2+b^2=c^2\ (approximately, because the decimals have been truncated, so aren't exactly a right triangle in some cases). Do I understand this correctly? May 8, 2019 at 7:07 • @KevinCruijssen almost correct, except you must find all combinations both with and without decimals at any given location. So it's not necessarily just adding a decimal point at every possible place; it's checking the results that would occur both by adding and not adding a decimal. May 8, 2019 at 14:19 • "Numbers can be used more than once." - Could you provide some examples of this or otherwise clarify what you mean? May 10, 2019 at 19:52 • @Beefster see the fifth example: one of the 5's is used to form two different right triangles. May 10, 2019 at 19:57 • Perhaps a better way to explain it would be something like "Right triangles that only use a subsequence of the digits can overlap with other triangles made from the same sequence of digits" or "You do not need to use all the digits for a single triangle and you may re-use digits that were used in previous triangles". What confused me about the way it's currently written is that it could be taken to mean that you can re-use a digit for the same triangle, so 125059 could be split into 12, 22, 25.059. May 13, 2019 at 22:45 # $$\n\$$-Chess KotH king-of-the-hillgridchessboard-game ## Introduction Inspired by the challenge N-movers: How much of the infinite board can I reach?, I came up with an idea of applying the $$\n\$$-mover rules in chess. $$\n\$$-Chess™ is a board game played on a 8x8 grid like the original chess. However, the pieces are very different from chess - they are named $$\n\$$-movers ($$\n\$$ can be any natural number) and can only move by the rules set on them (see Rules: Pieces). ## Rules ### Pieces In $$\n\$$-chess, a piece is called an $$\n\$$-mover, where $$\n\$$ denotes its possible movements. Specifically: 1. The $$\n\$$-mover can only move one step of Euclidean distance $$\\sqrt n\$$ each time, i.e. for a move with $$\x\$$ units horizontal and $$\y\$$ units vertical, $$\x\$$ and $$\y\$$ must fulfill the equation $$\x^2+y^2=n\$$ in order to be valid. • For example, a 5-mover can only move 1 unit in one direction and 2 units in the another at the same time; while a 25-mover can move 5 units in either direction, or 3 units in one direction and 4 units in the another at the same time. 2. A piece can have at most 2 rules set at the same time. For a piece that can act as either an $$\m\$$-mover or an $$\n\$$-mover, we can call it an $$\(m,n)\$$-mover. An $$\(m,n)\$$-mover is allowed to move one step of Euclidean distance of either $$\\sqrt m\$$ or $$\\sqrt n\$$ or $$\\sqrt{m+n}\$$. • It is allowed to have $$\m=n\$$. • Only pieces that has captured other pieces can have multiple rules (See Rules: Capture). 3. If more than 2 rules are set on a piece, only 2 rules can be reserved. You can choose which 2 rules to reserve. ### Board The chess is played on a 8x8 board. The initial setup is as follows: ### Capture 1. If a piece lands on a grid that an opponent piece has occupied (capture), that opponent piece shall be moved away from the board. 2. After that, the piece will be granted rules from the captured opponent piece. As stated in Piece, if there are more than 2 rules in total, only 2 shall be reserved. ### Playing 1. In a turn, White and Black play a move in turn. White always moves first. 2. Only one piece can be move per turn. 3. You cannot move a piece in the way that is not allowed by the rules set on it, beyond the boundaries of the board, or onto a grid already occupied by your other pieces. 4. You cannot move your last piece in the way that after moving it it can be captured instantly. ### Victory Condition The game ends with either player winning if: 1. The last piece of the opponent is being checkmated, i.e. no possible moves that can save this last piece from being captured; or 2. The opponent resigns and loses. (In this challenge, no resignation will be allowed) The game ends with a draw if : 1. No checkmate is possible for both sides; 2. Either player has no more possible moves, but is not in checkmate; 3. There is no capture in 50 moves; or 4. The identical board arrangement has appeared 3 times with the same player to move. ## Implementation A player bot is a class that implements a function nextMove(). This function receives 3 arguments and output an array of 6 integers: function nextMove( color: int, // Your color: 0 = white, 1 = black board: int[8][8][3], // Current board: // First index: x-coordinate // Second index: y-coordinate // The third layer will be as follows - // [0]: the color of the grid // (-1: Not occupied; 0: white; 1: black) // [1]: rule 1 (0 if not exists) // [2]: rule 2 (0 if not exists) moves: int[][10] // Previous moves: // First index: move number (0-indexed) // The second layer will be as follows - // [0]: the color of the player // [1]: is this a capture (0: no, 1: yes) // [2]: source x-coordinate // [3]: source y-coordinate // [4]: source rule 1 // [5]: source rule 2 (0 if not exists) // [6]: target x-coordinate // [7]: target y-coordinate // [8]: target rule 1 // [9]: target rule 2 (0 if not exists) ): int[6] // Return value: as follows: // [0]: source x-coordinate // [1]: source y-coordinate // [2]: target x-coordinate // [3]: target y-coordinate // [4]: target rule 1 // [5]: target rule 2 (0 if not exists)  • Rule 1 and Rule 2 denotes the 2 rules a piece has. • Source rule entries are used to denote which rules a piece has, while target rule entries are used to denote which rules are decide to keep. You may use JavaScript, pseudo-codes, or any languages similar to JavaScript, but using JavaScript is strongly encouraged, because all submissions will be translated to JavaScript before using for competition, and the test drive only supports JavaScript. ## Restriction 1. Standard loopholes are forbidden by default. 2. You cannot by any means read or modify other bots. You can only use data within the class and inputs passed to nextMove() function. 3. You may define other variables inside your class if needed. 4. You may use a random number generator. 5. Your bot, specifically the nextMove() function, must return value in 10 second per move. Timeout leads to disqualification. ## Procedure Round-robin will be used to determine the opponents, i.e. all bots will face each of the other bots twice, one as black and one as white. For each game, a win gets 2 points, a lose gets 0 points, and a draw gets 1 points. The bot will the highest points wins, and if there are any ties, they will be broken by: 1. Number of victories; 2. Average time to checkmate opponent (shorter is better); and 3. Drawing lots. (Hopefully this step is not necessary) ## TODO • Add a sample implementation. • KISS: since I assume that this is actually a game you've made up for the question, why not ditch checkmate and make the win condition that you capture all of the opposing pieces? I'm not sure about n-Chess™ for a name, either: it feels more like checkers than chess to me. May 29, 2019 at 16:34 • @PeterTaylor I'd say the question I had my inspiration from had its inspiration from chess, so I chose chess, and tbh I don't even know what checkers is until I've googled it right now. Well, it does look like checkers in the way capturing occurs, but I think I need to borrow some rules from chess, especially the ending rules, because I need to draw a line if the game never ends. Anyway thanks for your useful feedback! May 30, 2019 at 2:41 # Multi-Digit × Single-Digit Checker code-golfarithmetic # Introduction The story below is fictional, don't worry. Times table hard. More curriculum. Class advance. Son behind. Horror. Help. ahem Pardon me. So... I've got a big problem. The times table is huge, and all the mnemonic rules we've taught our son haven't make him fully memorize it yet. However, his class must advance to the next chapter, long multiplication. As a result, he is prone to making many mistakes while multiplying numbers. See, they're already making the students multiply a multi-digit number by a single-digit number. My son often forgets to carry digits over and, of course, his times table. The good thing is that he never misses digits! The situation is awful. Help me before they start with two multi-digit numbers! # Challenge Your challenge is to write a program that takes a multiplier, a multiplicand and a product, and analyzes the product for any of the following mistakes. Here's how: • If a digit is the correct ones digit of the product of the multiplicand times the digit of the multiplier he's currently multiplying, but a non-zero carryover was supposed to be added to it, then this digit has a carryover error. • If a digit is otherwise wrong, there's a times table error around it (we can't be sure if the ones digit was wrong or a carryover digit was wrong), so it has a times table error. • There will never be another kind of mistake in the product, my son doesn't skip digits. For each wrong digit, return an array of two or three elements: • Position of the digit from the left or right, 0- or 1-indexed (your choice must be consistent). Keep in mind that, if the leftmost digit is absent due to a carryover error, then it's still the leftmost digit and the place has the relevant index. • Correct carryover, if the mistake was a carryover error, or omitted otherwise. You may also put a 0 instead of omitting the element (you can't blame my son for forgetting to add a zero carryover!), but be consistent. • Correct digit. # Rules • The numbers will all be positive integers. • The multiplicand will be an integer from 1 to 9, inclusive. • You can get the three numbers via any reasonable way you want. • The output can be in any order, as can the elements of each array, as long as the latter is consistent. • You may not make use of any standard loophole. • This is a challenge, so the shortest answer, measured in bytes, wins. # Test cases Multiplier, Multiplicand, Product -> Mistakes (0-indexed from the left, possibly absent carryover) 5, 3, 15 -> [] (15) 3, 5, 5 -> [[0, 1, 1]] (05 -> 15) 7, 3, 31 -> [[0, 2]] (31 -> 21) 1551, 9, 4959 -> [[0, 1, 1], [1, 4, 3]] (04959 -> 14959 -> 13959) 2121, 7, 14847 -> [] (14847) 2121, 7, 4727 -> [[0, 1, 1], [2, 1, 8], [3, 4]] (04727 -> 14727 -> 14827 -> 14847) 33333, 9, 11111 -> [[0, 2, 2], [1, 9], [2, 9], [3, 9], [4, 9], [5, 7]] (011111 -> 211111 -> 291111 -> 299111 -> 299911 -> 299991 -> 299997)  # Sandbox • Is the challenge unclear? • Is the output format weird or too strict? • I think it's a pretty interesting challenge! My only nitpick is in the introduction, when you're bringing up 'My son makes these mistakes:': make this section a bit more formal/a bit less story-level detail. The rest of the introduction is funny and gives some good context, but while reading the challenge I was kind of thrown off by the unnecessary detail in that section, e.g 'Ah, the crux of my worries.' Jul 9, 2019 at 21:25 • @GezaKerecsenyi That might be because those were part of the challenge text before I decided to move it all to the Challenge section. I'll shorten them to one sentence. EDIT: I've removed that part. Jul 9, 2019 at 22:01 • Also, I think that making the carryover optional is quite confusing, and it also means that you have to check if it was a carryover error just to know whether to output it or not. I would suggest to make them always give the correct carryover or 0, even if it wasn't a carryover error. Jul 10, 2019 at 7:46 • @GezaKerecsenyi I'm giving two options for times table errors, either exclude the carryover or make it 0. The answerer can choose one of the two consistently. Do you think there's an issue with the first one? Jul 10, 2019 at 17:48 ## Sandbox Notes • Any other/better tags? • Is my math right? # Knot Function TL;DR: Define a closed curve in 3D space that forms a knot. A function $$\f : [0,1] \to \mathbb R^3\$$ is considered a loop function if the following conditions hold: • It is continuous. • $$\f(0) = f(1)\$$. • It is injective everywhere else. Intuitively, this means that the function traces out a curve in 3D space that does not intersect itself. Let the set of loop functions be denoted $$\\text{Loop}\$$. One such function is $$\\text{circle}(t) = (0, \sin 2\pi t, \cos 2\pi t)\$$, which traces out a circle in 3D space. A function $$\f : \text{Loop}\$$ is considered a knot function if there exists no continuous function $$\d : [0,1] \to \text {Loop}\$$ such that $$\d(0) = f\$$ and $$\d(1) = \text{circle}\$$. Intuitively, this means that the loop that the function traces out cannot be continuously deformed into a circle without intersecting itself. ## The Task Write a program or function that implements a knot function, where real numbers are replaced with (to best approximation) floating point numbers. This is , so the shortest valid answer (measured in bytes) wins. • This is going to need a formal definition of continuity, in particular of \d\. E.g. if using epsilon-delta, what's the distance metric between loops? Jul 5, 2019 at 11:06 • @PeterTaylor I think it's pointwise fixing each input value of t that's given to d. – xnor Jul 6, 2019 at 1:54 • You need to be careful about input because it is not possible for a computable function to take an arbitrary real number between \[0,1]\ as input, so for this challenge \[0,1]\ is going to have to mean something else likely \\mathbb{Q}\cap[0,1]\. You might also want to replace \\mathbb{R}^3\ with \\mathbb{Q}^3\, but I don't think this is technically necessary. – Wheat Wizard Mod Jul 6, 2019 at 2:59 • Also I am going to recommend the topological definition of continuity over \\varepsilon-\delta\ for this purpose because it meshes neatly with topology. (and IMO is easier to understand anyway) – Wheat Wizard Mod Jul 6, 2019 at 3:02 • I think it would help to give a short informal statement of the challenge before going into the definition, so as not to needlessly scare away anyone intimidated by the math terms. – xnor Jul 10, 2019 at 4:23 • The TL;DR needs "closed", because open polynomial curves which are knots are not valid answers. Jul 11, 2019 at 22:12 • @PeterTaylor Fixed. Jul 11, 2019 at 22:13 # Print the sum of the previous answer's ASCII values ## Challenge Output the sum of the previous answer's characters. For example, if the previous answer was print(25), the next answer would have to output the next answer would have to output 741. ## Initial Answer The initial answer has to output the number 1000 ## Rules • Your code can only use ascii characters (sorry Jelly), no extended-ASCII or Unicode characters. • Your output can be in Decimal, Unary or Base 256 (represented by ASCII characters) • You cannot use a language that has been used before. (Note: Different versions of the same language are allowed, like Python 2 and Python 3) • To prevent overly long languages (such as Unary) ruining the chain, your answer cannot be longer then 1000000 bytes. • The same person cannot post twice in a row • If two users post "at the same time", the earlier one will stand • If a solution breaks one of these rules, it and all answers that chain off of it will be deleted • Don't edit your code after you've posted it, otherwise it could invalidate code that chains off of it ## Winning The winner of the challenge is whoever has posted the most recent answer, since it will get harder and harder the more languages that are used. • Can you clarify base 256? If extended ASCII is excluded, is there a specific way to represent 256 distinct digits using 127 codepoints? Jul 13, 2019 at 20:12 • IMO this is too trivial to make a good answer chaining question. Finding an unused language in which you can figure out how to write (essentially) Hello, World is not going to get difficult until a couple of thousand answers in. Jul 14, 2019 at 8:24 • Wouldn't every answer just be variants of print(n) where \n\ is the integer literal of the sum of the last answer? – Jo King Mod Jul 15, 2019 at 22:52 • Yeah, I’m gonna scrap this challenge because I didn’t think it through properly Jul 16, 2019 at 6:22 ## I'm sorry, Code Golf This challenge is inspired by a series of Garfield-inspired artwork in which Garfield is depicted as a horror creature, stalking his owner, Jon. Commonly referred to as "Creepy Garfield", the line "I'm sorry, Jon" can be found in one of the earliest Creepy Garfield images, created by DubbleBaby. After being used over and over again by the Code Golf community, our beloved Jimmy has transformed - no longer bound to his weak, mortal body. He has become the embodiment of spaghetti code, the ascii manifestation of hours-long debugging sessions. ## Your Task: Take 3 ordered numerical inputs and output Jimmy's body Inputs Input is received in the form x y z where: x is the number of left limbs (integer between 1 & 10) y is the number of right limbs (integer between 1 & 10) z is the number of heads (integer between 1 & 10) ----Sample Input---- 2 8 1  Meta Note: I don't think increasing the possible amount of body parts will influence the solutions but please let me know if you think they should be higher. Body Parts Head = <o> Left Limb = / Right Limb = \ Filler Limb = | Body Piece = 0  Body Generation Rules  1. Left limbs must be attached to the left side of a body piece (excl rule 3) - Correct: /0 - Incorrect: /<o> - Incorrect: 0/ - Incorrect: /0\0\ 2. Right limbs must be attached to the right side of a body piece (excl rule 3) - Correct: 0\ - Incorrect: <o>\ - Incorrect: \0 3. Limbs must not touch - Correct: /00\ - Incorrect: /0\/0\ 4. An external body piece without a limb must have a | in its place - Correct: /0| - Correct: |0| - Correct: /00\ - Incorrect: /0 - Incorrect: 0\ 5. Heads must be between body pieces (horizontally not vertically) - Correct: 0<o>0 - Incorrect: 0<o><o>0 - Incorrect: 0<o> 6. All lines must be aligned centre - Correct: /0\ /0<o>0| /0\ - Incorrect: /0\ /0<o>0| /0\ 7. The bottom line of Jimmy's body must always contain a left and right limb - Correct: /0\ /0<o>0| /0\ - Incorrect: /0\ /0<o>0\ /0| 8. Jimmy's body must be whole and cannot be separated into sections - Correct: /0\ /0<o>0| - Incorrect: /0\ /0\ |0<o>0| - Incorrect: /0\ /0<o>0|  Examples Input: 2 8 2 Sample Output: /0<o>0<o>0\ |0\ |0\ |0\ |0\ |0\ |0\ /0\ OR /0\ |0\ |0<o>0\ |0\ |0\ |0<o>0\ |0\ /0\  ## Rules & Win Conditions 1. You may receive the stated input via any method into a program or function. 2. You may display the output in any clear and discernible way. 3. Your output must obey all Body Generation Rules. 4. The previous 3 rules must be followed for all 1000 combinations of inputs. 5. Standard loophole rules apply. As this is , least amount of code in bytes wins. • I don't like bonuses in code golf in general, and this one doesn't even affect the score so it's just an invitation to distract from the challenge Jul 16, 2019 at 20:36 • (1) Whenever you see a bandwagon, run the other way. It's better to ask an interesting question than the nth variant on a theme. (2) That aside, there's no clear explanation of what the input is. Where are the values of that enum? Jul 17, 2019 at 10:53 • @PeterTaylor (1) This challenge doesn't exist to hop on the bandwagon. I thought that generating an eldritch-like stick figure would be neat. If you don't think this is an interesting question, I'd love to hear your feedback on that. (2) I've amended the input section to be a bit clearer but I'm not sure what I was missing in the first place. – BDM Jul 17, 2019 at 21:13 • What's missing is an explanation of the interpretation of the numbers. The input section defines the range of legal inputs but not the meaning of the inputs. Jul 17, 2019 at 21:33 • @PeterTaylor Ah I understand now. Hopefully my recent edit solves this. – BDM Jul 17, 2019 at 21:44 • Somewhat related ... I think?! Jul 21, 2019 at 21:23 # Minimum string attractors # String attractors Let $$\S\$$ be a string of length $$\n\$$. An attractor of $$\S\$$ is a subset of indices $$\A \subset \{0, \ldots, n-1\}\$$ such that every nonempty contiguous substring $$\S[i \ldots j]\$$ of $$\S\$$ has an occurrence $$\S[i' \ldots j']\$$ whose index set $$\[i' \ldots j']\$$ intersects $$\A\$$. A minimum attractor is one with minimal size. Minimum attractors can be used to implement very efficient string compression algorithms. In this challenge, your task is to find a minimum attractor for a given string. # Example Consider the string acabaccabc. Using 0-based indexing, one of its attractors is $$\A = \{2,3,5,8\}\$$. This graphic shows the positions of $$\A\$$: acabaccabc ^^ ^ ^  For example, the occurrence of the substring ac in the beginning doesn't intersect $$\A\$$, but there is another occurrence after the first b that does. It turns out that no attractor of size 3 exists for this string, so $$\A\$$ is a minimum attractor. # Specifications Your input is a nonempty string of lowercase ASCII characters. Your output is a minimum attractor for this string, in any reasonable format. You can use either 0-based or 1-based indexing. There may be several choices for the minimum attractor. In that case you may return any one of them, but only one. The lowest byte count wins. # Test cases These are 0-indexed and show one possible output. a -> [0] aaa -> [0] ababab -> [0,1] qgqqgq -> [1,2] abcbacaa -> [1,3,5,6] abcdefgh -> [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7] jejjeeje -> [2,3,5] sttststt -> [1,5] ykkkkvyk -> [0,2,5] assassins -> [0,2,6,7] acabaccabc -> [2,4,6,8] ssssssjjjsjj -> [5,8] hrhrhhrhhhrr -> [3,7,10] fubuaabubuau -> [0,1,4,6,10] jjaahajjhahaaahjjh -> [2,6,8,11,14]  • It took me a few tries to understand the first paragraph. I think it is explained well, but I may just have been unfamiliar with the language. Adding an explanation of "occurrence" may help? Jul 18, 2019 at 20:34 • The formal definition in the first paragraph is clear if you are used to such an academic style, though it might unnecessarily hard to grasp for users with no such background. It might be worthwhile to start with an informal explanation before giving the concise formal specification. E.g. something like this: Consider the following game: You are given a string like acabaccabc and need to defend it against attacks by marking some of its characters. An attack is a continuous substring of the given string, e.g. ca, and it is defended if one of the occurrences of the substring has (1/2) Jul 28, 2019 at 18:43 • a character that was marked by you. In the given example, ca occurs two times and covers the characters at positions 1,2 and 6,7 (with positions starting with 0). Thus, at least one of the positions 1,2,6 or 7 would need to be marked to defend the attack. Your goal is to find a marking such that the string is defended against any attack. Furthermore, you want to mark as few characters as possible. (2/2) Jul 28, 2019 at 18:43 Posted here # Check If A Binary Search Tree Is Balanced Now posted on CodeGolf.StackExchange.com: Write The Shortest Program To Check If A Binary Tree Is Balanced • Looks like a nice challenge! I think you should specify what representations of a binary tree are accepted. There is certainly the representation as a list (where the children of the entry at index r are at 2*r and 2*r+1), but there might also be other native representations. Aug 5, 2019 at 6:44 • Now that you've posted this, please edit it to be only a link to the main challenge and then delete your post to help keep the Sandbox tidy. Thanks! Aug 7, 2019 at 14:28 Posted to PPCG. Thx for the votes! # Find the Lowest Common Ancestor of Two Nodes In A Binary Tree Any two separate nodes in a binary tree have a common ancestor, which is the root of a binary tree. The lowest common ancestor(LCA) is thus defined as the node that is furthest from the root and that is the ancestor of the two nodes. The following are binary trees and the lowest common ancestors of the some of their nodes. The LCA of 13 and 15 is 14. The LCA of 47 and 49 is 48. The LCA of 4 and 45 is 40. The LCA of 13 and 14 is 14. Challenge Write the shortest program possible that accepts as input the root of a binary tree and references to any two nodes in the binary tree. The program returns a reference to the LCA node of the two inputted nodes. Restriction The binary tree does not have nodes with parent field references in any form. You may not use parent field references in your program. Input The root of a binary tree and references to any two nodes in the binary tree. This may be in the form of a reference to the root object or even a list that is a valid representation of a binary tree. Output Returns a reference to the node that is the LCA of the two inputted nodes. Definition of a Binary Tree A tree is an object that contains a value and either two other trees or pointers to them. The structure of the binary tree looks something like the following: typedef struct T { struct T *l; struct T *r; int v; }T;  If using a list representation for a binary tree, it may look something like the following: [root_value, left_node, right_node]  • I mostly like your binary tree questions, but it would be nice if your definition was more inclusive of languages without the concept of pointers. Something like 'input will be a tree where a tree is either something containing a number and two other trees, or else something representing nothing. A tree must not be ambiguous'. This would include strings like [5[][7[6[][]][8[][]]], where a tree is [number tree tree] or [] as well as the usual standard binary tree structures and lists – Jo King Mod Aug 9, 2019 at 6:45 # A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words The average word is four characters/bytes long. So a picture, according to the old saying, is worth 4 kilobytes. But how complicated can that picture get? Using any language or length of code you want, generate an image exactly 4,000 bytes in size with the highest possible entropy. You may use any standard image format. Your score will be the compression ratio when your image is compressed as a .zip file. For example, an image that compresses to 2,000 bytes will score 2, but if it expands to 4,100 bytes it will score 0.9756. Lowest score wins. • What image formats are allowed? Aug 13, 2019 at 2:41 • @wastl All of them. Aug 13, 2019 at 3:19 • should the program output to a file or can it print a list of bytes? Aug 13, 2019 at 12:20 • Interesting challenge. .zip is a file format, not a compression method, though. You'll need to specify what compression method is used -- DEFLATE, LZMA, etc. -- because that could drastically affect the scoring. Aug 13, 2019 at 12:51 • @SuperStormer It shouldn't matter as long as you upload the image file. Aug 13, 2019 at 15:03 • @AdmBorkBork How about gzip? I would specify version 1.6 because that's what I have. Aug 13, 2019 at 15:04 • If you say something like gzip 1.6 using DEFLATE with default settings that should probably suffice. Aug 13, 2019 at 15:58 • I didn't test this but I feel that any uncommon image format of raw data will have the optimal score (assume the compressor is smart enough to store without compression) Aug 16, 2019 at 4:42 ## Black Hole Evaporation Background: In empty space, occurring all the time, there are pairs of particles that appear and then, usually soon after, cancel each other out. At a certain distance from a Black Hole, it's possible that a pair of particles might spontaneously appear and, if the distance is just right, one of the particles will fall into the Event Horizon while the other escapes off into space, never getting a chance to cancel each other out. The exit of those particles is Hawking Radiation. Eventually, this process causes the entire Black Hole to evaporate away. Challenge Given a string of numbers, emit the negative of the single digit number closest to, in front of, the infinity symbol ∞ (the event horizon), and continue emiting it until there are no digits left in front of the infinity symbol. Then print the rest of the string masking each character uniquely and different from the masked character (burst of energy that might take place at the final instant), excluding any infinity symbols. Test cases Input: Output: 111∞4567 -1 -1 -1 jkl; 3∞ -3 3-145∞962 -5 -4 1 -3 ™©® 4-567-9∞1-23 9 -7 -6 5 -4 😐😈😎😻 2-1∞ 1 -2 34∞67∞89 -4 -3 9876 -123∞456 -3 -2 1 ♫♪# 6-6∞6 6 -6 ä 48120∞ 0 (or -0) -2 -1 -8 -4 ---5∞555 5 オゼヰ  Challenge rules • Anything after the first infinity symbol can be ignored as it has fallen into the Black Hole and we know nothing more about it anyway until after evaporation, where the information is a bit scrambled. • The code should only expect numbers, negations, and infinity symbols. No decimal points or other symbols. The input can be an array, list, etc..., but each character must be separate, including the negation and infinity characters. • A negation only applies to the single digit immediately after it. See the test cases above. • You may mask the remaining characters after evaporation with any character set of your choice, as long as the resulting character is different from the masked character, and each character in the resulting output is unique. For languages limited to smaller character sets (or type constraints), characters may repeat after each possible unique character has already been utilized in the output. • You may use the '_' symbol instead of the '∞' symbol. General rules • This is , so shortest code in bytes in its respective language wins. • Standard rules apply for your answer with default I/O rules, so you are allowed to use STDIN (with the specification above)/STDOUT, functions/method with the proper parameters and return-type, full programs. • Default Loopholes are forbidden. • If possible, please add a link with a test for your code (TIO). • I'm thinking of expanding this to all alpha numeric characters. Aug 7, 2019 at 19:04 • What does it do if there is a single number after the infinity symbol? Aug 8, 2019 at 6:53 • I'll update the rules and the test cases. Curiously, I already sort of demonstrated that case by having nothing after the infinity symbol. Nice catch. Aug 8, 2019 at 6:55 • If 121 remains after evaporation, is reversing that string an acceptable scrambling? – Adám Aug 8, 2019 at 7:21 • Any particular reason to use ∞? Adding Unicode into the mix is an unnecessary complication for many languages. Maybe allow substituting _? – Adám Aug 8, 2019 at 7:22 • @Adam, "If 121 remains after evaporation, is reversing that string an acceptable scrambling" Absolutey! Our understanding of what happens to the information after Black Hole evaporation is still under much debate. It is entirely possible that the result of scrambling might result in the same information. We just don't know. Aug 8, 2019 at 7:46 • @Adam, "Any particular reason to use ∞? Adding Unicode into the mix is an unnecessary complication for many languages." Yeah I thought about that. It can even be excluding factor, which I don't like. I really want that infinity symbol though.... I'll have a think about it, but any suggestions like yours are welcome. Aug 8, 2019 at 7:49 • @Adam, "If 121 remains after evaporation, is reversing that string an acceptable scrambling?". After re-reading through the Information Paradox, I think the answer is 'no'. '121' should definitely end up different. I'll have to find some way to re-word the challenge, and I can be talked out of this. This requirement seemed rather innocent, but as I'm trying to code this up in my head, it can get complicated. Aug 8, 2019 at 8:01 • The connection between the background and the task is not very clear. The comment about information suggests that you have a much clearer idea which you haven't included in the question. There's no need to overload the question with back story, but a link to a more detailed explanation might make it feel less arbitrary. Aug 8, 2019 at 8:23 • @PeterTaylor, I've been mulling over your comment and I'm not sure what to include. Links to the Information Paradox or Hawking Radiation, or both? Aug 8, 2019 at 8:41 • Probably both. AIUI, the infinity symbol represents the event horizon, the symbols to the left represent virtual pairs which become Hawking radiation, the symbols to the right represent the captured information, the emission of the inverted symbols to the left corresponds to the emission of Hawking radiation, and the shuffling of the symbols to the right corresponds to the information paradox. (I'm not sure without checking some reference why there's anything left to the right after evaporation). It would be good to sketch the correspondences and have some "Further reading". Aug 8, 2019 at 8:46 • @PeterTaylor, Ok thanks. The final stage of evaporation might release a detectable packet of energy (which has yet to be seen or is even theoretically certain), so that's kind of what that represents. There might be something left over afterwords, or maybe not. When I get the chance, I'll edit some links in and parenthesize some metaphors in there as well. Aug 8, 2019 at 8:55 • @ouflak Regarding ∞ you can use it but allow substitution. Btw, _ is the infinity symbol in the J language. – Adám Aug 8, 2019 at 9:27 • @Adám, What about, "If your language has a built-in substitute for ∞, you may use that. If your language can't use Unicode, or use it efficiently, you may use the '_' symbol instead." Does that sound fair and inclusive enough? Aug 8, 2019 at 10:03 • @ouflak What if your language's infinity is inf? That's three symbols, so it complicates matters a lot. "use it efficiently" is unclear? Does that include causing higher byte count? How about just: You may use the _ symbol instead of ∞. – Adám Aug 8, 2019 at 10:06 # caN it be acrOnymised? • I shall hereby refer to Code Golf and Coding Challenges as DANGLE Aug 19, 2019 at 18:32 • Can the acronym contain lowercase letters? (For an example of that, see BSoD.) – user85052 Aug 20, 2019 at 4:58 • @A__ While actual acronyms can, I'm going to say that the acronym will always be in complete uppercase, for simplicity's sake. And I've added in constraints on the length of the inputs. Aug 20, 2019 at 9:13 # BotNets KotH Controller, Example and Submission Template now added flavor text not yet written This is a web-based JS KotH where submissions have 2 parts, a Worker Bot and a Controller Bot. The goal is to have the most gold at the end of the game, by killing other bots and collecting gold found on the grid, while navigating the grid and surviving. # Worker Bots A Worker Bot is a class(ES6 or ES5) based on this format: class YourWorkerBot extends WorkerBot { performAction(message) {} sendMessage(x, y, surroundings) {} }  Each botnet has 20 Worker Bots. For every botnet, its worker bots are ### Method Descriptions: • constructor(index): sets the color that the controller displays the bot as • performAction(message): returns an action(described below). • sendMessage(x,y,surroundings): x and y are zero-indexed coordinates. surroundings is a flat array of the 5x5 area around the bot. returns message(string) to send to controller bot ### Actions Each move is formatted as a 2 element list([action, param]) where action is a string • Movement: formatted as ["move", square] where square is an integer that represents the square you want to move to, using the same index as the surroundings object. You can only move one square orthogonally or diagonally. Moving onto a square with a coin will collect the coin. • Kill: formatted as ["kill", square] where square is an integer that represents the square you want to attack, using the same index as the surroundings object. You can only kill a bot one square orthogonally or diagonally. If you kill a square with no bot, you do nothing. You get half the coins(rounded down) of the bot you attacked. • EMP: formatted as ["emp",undefined]. It causes all bots including itself in the 7x7 surrounding area can't move next turn. This costs 3 coins. • Any invalid action is treated as you doing nothing. ### Surroundings The surroundings object will be a flat array of the 5x5 area around you, starting from the top left corner and going left to right and top to bottom. The grid below shows how the indexes of the array map to the actual grid area. Each square will be either a string, where "B" is a bot, "C" is a coin, "E" is an edge(not a valid move target) and "" is empty.  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24  # Controller Bot A Controller Bot is a class(ES6 or ES5) that extends the following class: class YourControllerBot extends ControllerBot{ constructor(locations){ super(locations) this.storage="" } sendMessage(messages,index){ return "" } }  Each botnet has only 1 Controller Bot. ### Method Descriptions • constructor(locations): locations is an array of the initial locations([x,y]) of the worker bots.sets initial storage value • sendMessage(messages,index): messages is a list of lists of the messages sent by all the worker bots(not just your own), always in the same order and grouped by botnet. returns message to its worker bots whose index is index. # The Game The arena will be a 100x100 grid with 100 random coins scattered around it. Each game will have 1000 rounds and will have up to 15 randomly selected botnets. Every round, 10 coins will spawn at a random unoccupied spot. Every worker bot will get 1 turn per round. Each botnet's worker bots will perform an action in the same order for the entire game, but the order in which botnets take turns is randomized every round. Every turn, all the worker bots' sendMessage methods will be called(not just the worker bot taking the turn). After that, the controller bot's sendMessage method will be called. Finally, the worker bot's performAction method will be called and the action will be executed. This will repeat for every worker bot in a round. # Scoring Each botnet's score is the sum of the coins collected by each of the worker bots. Botnets are ranked by most score. # Controller(WIP) https://botnets-koth.firebaseapp.com # Example function sampleBotnet() { class SampleControllerBot extends ControllerBot { constructor(locations) { super(locations); this.storage = ""; } sendMessage(messages, index) { let surrondings = messages.find(message => message[0] === index)[1]; let otherBot = surrondings.findIndex( (square, i) => square === "B" && [6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18].includes(i) ); if (otherBot !== -1) { return ["kill", otherBot]; } let coin = surrondings.findIndex( (square, i) => square === "C" && [6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18].includes(i) ); if (coin !== -1) { return ["move", coin]; } let validMoves = [6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18].filter( x => surrondings[x] === "" ); return [ "move", validMoves[Math.floor(Math.random() * validMoves.length)] ]; } } class SampleWorkerBot extends WorkerBot { performAction(message) { return message; } sendMessage(x, y, surroundings) { return [this.index, surroundings]; } } return { name: "SampleBotnet", color: "red", controllerBot: SampleControllerBot, workerBot: SampleWorkerBot }; } #Submission Template javascript /* eslint constructor-super:0,no-this-before-super:0,no-unused-vars:0*/ import ControllerBot from "./src/scripts/ControllerBot.js"; import WorkerBot from "./src/scripts/WorkerBot.js"; //copy the part below function yourBotnet() { class YourControllerBot extends ControllerBot { constructor(locations) { super(locations); this.storage = ""; } sendMessage(messages, index) { return []; } } class YourWorkerBot extends WorkerBot { performAction(message) {} sendMessage(x, y, surroundings) {} } return { name: "YourBotnet", color: "", controllerBot: YourControllerBot, workerBot: YourWorkerBot }; }  # Rules • Standard Loopholes apply • Bots cannot modify or add global variables • Bots cannot call controller functions or other bots' methods • Bots cannot read or modify other bots storage • Bots may not access the internet • I may disqualify any bot which does anything I deem to be cheating. # Sandbox • Is the bar to entry too high? • Can the current turn/round system be improved? • Any better names for the 2 bots/title? • Is there enough room for creativity? • Would it be better if I merged the 2 classes into one class? • Is there anything broken with the spec? • How many workers per controller, and how many controllers per game? Also, are controllers supposed to be able to message to all workers, or just their own? Aug 12, 2019 at 4:05 • @UnrelatedString should be fixed Aug 12, 2019 at 13:25 • performAction(surroundings, message) { return eval(message); } sendMessage(surroundings) { return JSON.stringify(surroundings); } There are, of course, countless other ways to circumvent the size restrictions. I also find said restrictions quite brutal. Additionally, I don't see the point of worker-side storage. Finally, the whole document is difficult to read - giving a short summary of the goal at the beginning would go a long way. Nitpick: it's "surroundings", not "surrondings". Aug 16, 2019 at 10:46 • Since your latest revision is "fixed spec": a) The WorkerBot class is invalid - calling super there is a syntax error. Do you want to show the base class that should be extended, or a template of how to extend said class? The second option makes more sense in my opinion, although the text right above seems to indicate otherwise. b.1) Under "Controller Bot", what is index? How is it chosen? b.2) What do bots that don't have the specified index receive as the message? b.3) Are there duplicate worker bot indexes possible? If not, please fix sendMessages descripiton. Aug 18, 2019 at 8:21 • c) Under 'The Game', sendMessages instead of sendMessage for controller bot. d) I'm worried about the split between worker bot and controller bot. I don't see how it would be anything but a minor nuisance under the current rules. Previously it was code-golf, but that's gone now. I'm also aware that it is supposed to be the essence of this challenge, so I'm hoping there's just a big misunderstanding somewhere. Perhaps it'll become clear once (b) is addressed. Aug 18, 2019 at 8:24 • I really like this idea! I think the combat could be improved (kill seems like it would just give too much power to the bots that go first in a turn), but the EMP is really creative (you might want to reduce it's range to what a worker can see, to reduce unintentional friendly fire). So that you don't need to order based on randomness, you can use a sort of "two pass" system where you first create a list of all the moves workers make, then apply them in a way that doesn't give any advantage to the worker who goes first (continued) Aug 19, 2020 at 21:47 • (continuation) For example, all EMPs would be applied, then all kills, then all movement. If two bots attempted to move into the same spot or kill each other, you could base it off of some secondary factor like number of coins/gold or most friendly workers in the vicinity. Good luck with the challenge, it seems really cool! Aug 19, 2020 at 21:49 ## Up side down keyboard Jono 2906 wants you to create a translator from plain Australian to up-side-down text after inventing a keyboard dedicated to typing up-side-down text, since they still want to demonstrate that their keyboard is powerful after failing to program in their keyboard. However, they want your implementation to be typed with their own keyboard, since they also want to get used to programming using their keyboard. ## Input/Output The whole ASCII character set mapped to their up-side down variation (the up-side down " is a double ,):  !"#%&'()*+,-./ 0123456789:;<=>? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO PQRSTUVWXYZ[^_
abcdefghijklmno
pqrstuvwxyz{|}~

¡,,#\$%⅋,)(*+'-˙/
0ƖᄅƐㄣϛ9ㄥ86:;>=<¿
@∀qƆpƎℲפHIſʞ˥WNO
ԀQɹS┴∩ΛMX⅄Z]\[^‾
,ɐqɔpǝɟƃɥᴉɾʞlɯuo
dbɹsʇnʌʍxʎz}|{~


The rest of the characters are kept as-is(yes, the unprintable characters are in the ASCII character set). The characters that are larger than 0x7f will be mapped back by subtracting the character code by 128.

If you are using a character that is larger than 256, modulo the character's character code by 128 before checking the availability.

## Rules

• As for the last rule: we can only use those upside down characters in our source code, and when converting it to regular it should also work? So both programs ABC and ∀qƆ` should work exactly the same? Aug 28, 2019 at 9:25