Questions tagged [answers]

For questions regarding answers posted to challenges. This tag is not for questions about a specific answer, but for answers in general

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11 votes
4 answers
354 views

How do we handle answers that have later become invalid due to external circumstances?

From time to time, answers can be posted to the site which, at the time are valid but later become invalid without any fault of the original answerer. For example, a number of answers to this ...
5 votes
2 answers
200 views

What is our consensus on languages which do not halt by design?

Current consensus seems to be that programs must terminate by default. This makes sense in general. However, does this bar use of languages which are not designed with a halt state (other than ...
3 votes
2 answers
93 views

For lambdas that is, how should we input them into tio.run?

following this meta codegolf stackexchange post, I've stopped using declarations for lambda functions, but one problem this creates is that since you're only inputting the lambda body and not its ...
17 votes
0 answers
159 views

Correct flag usage on invalid submissions

Recently, a couple of invalid answers have been flagged as NAA. This is somewhat of a duplicate of this answer on our policy, but I want to mention this because it's important that everyone is using ...
  • 40.7k
10 votes
1 answer
199 views

Handling old, popular, creative, but non-competitive answers

Take a look at this answer: Produce the number 2014 without any numbers in your source code. This is the most upvoted answer on our site right now. However, as many have pointed out, by modern ...
  • 40.7k
8 votes
1 answer
167 views

Can Whispers programs ignore a final output line?

This was first asked by Leo in the Whispers chat room: But I have a general question about Whispers submissions: couldn't we avoid counting the final Output line most of the time? We can consider the ...
1 vote
1 answer
119 views

What to count in assembly?

Yes, I've checked this post (How are bytes counted in assembly), but I'm asking a different question. I'm asking, if I have an .asm file, an ...
  • 487
7 votes
1 answer
128 views

What's our policy on "reposting" older answers with newer versions?

On occasion, especially with a couple of specific, inactive users, I'll craft a Jelly answer identical to an existing answer, except for a few byte-saving substitutions that have been added to the ...
2 votes
0 answers
69 views

Are compile-time solutions valid?

I have a couple answers here that work at compile-time and just posted another, and I was wondering if such solutions are allowed. I'm not talking about just proper functions that can run at compile-...
  • 348
8 votes
2 answers
191 views

Should I upvote an answer based on how much it was improved?

Should I hold how much an answer's score increased/decreased (depending on the winning criterion) as an indicator of how good it is and whether or not I should upvote it? I used to see answers golfed ...
  • 348
11 votes
5 answers
429 views

Why are some users so quick to jump on a bandwagon?

I've been lurking on this site long before I made my account, and I've seen many cases where people are downvoted simply because they post an answer in the same language as someone else and it happens ...
  • 345
5 votes
0 answers
138 views

For fastest-code questions are new compiler optimisations as non-competing allowed?

I looked around and it seems that the language is defined by the compiler not operational semantics. In normal code golf new languages are banned because of the loophole of implementing the answer as ...
12 votes
2 answers
253 views

Acceptable answer for a code golf

The Code Golf stackexchange tour gives a detailed explanation on, how to ask a Code Golf question. But what about how to answer? I have multiple questions about: How to give an answer?. Neither the ...
3 votes
0 answers
78 views

What's a number? [duplicate]

Similar to What's a string? If a challenge says that the input will be “a number”, what data types are acceptable? Obviously, types like int and ...
  • 6,571
2 votes
2 answers
76 views

Can I change the version of the language in my answer (Python 3 to 2), or do I post a new answer?

I wrote a Python 3 answer. I called it Python 3 in the title; however, it works equally well in Python 2. I discovered that I am able to remove several bytes from the answer, but only if I use Python ...
9 votes
1 answer
179 views

Adding a link to Try It Online to existing answers

If I find an old answer whose code I verified works using, say, Try It Online, can I edit that answer and add the link?
  • 109
6 votes
1 answer
215 views

what did I do wrong and how can I improve

why did they put this challenge on hold? How could I have made it clearer? Benjamin has N boxes in his garden with dimension xiyizi each. Because he does not want to let them out and get wet, he ...
4 votes
0 answers
183 views

Scratch 2.0 is no longer considered a "free" language. Does this retroactively make cops-and-robbers cop answers in Scratch 2.0 non-competitive?

As per this question's answers, Scratch 2.0 is no longer considered a "free" language. As per this question's accepted answer, non-free languages are allowed if marked as non-competing. Scratch 2.0 ...
5 votes
3 answers
246 views

Is a regex answer valid if it gives the reciprocal of the required output? [duplicate]

This answer gives the reciprocal of the required output, rather than the required output itself. In a simpler challenge this might cut out a significant part of the work, but for this particular ...
5 votes
1 answer
184 views

Existence of known score but unknown exact code

Consider the following the challenge: Write a program that accomplishes X task while maximizing the number of distinct characters in your source code. Removing any set of characters from the ...
  • 17k
4 votes
1 answer
257 views

Does linter golf require a specific interpreter to be a valid answer for golf?

If someone answers a code-golf challenge in, for example, JavaScript, and as an additional challenge restricts to only code that is approved by http://www.jslint.com/ that answer is valid if an ...
6 votes
1 answer
84 views

Sorting answers [duplicate]

Some popular challenges have many many answers and often a language is used more than once, so : Is there a way to sort answers so that they appear in the order according to the name of a language OR ...
  • 499
9 votes
3 answers
357 views

What should we do when a language cannot answer a given challenge?

Many challenges, mainly restricted-source, are impossible in some languages. Find an Illegal String is a good example—many languages without syntax errors, such as brainfuck (deleted answer), ...
25 votes
2 answers
664 views

Is it permitted for a submission to terminate merely with probability 1?

The question is in the title. I'm interested in submissions that terminate with probability 1 but have unbounded worst case running times. This is related to the question Do programs have to ...
  • 4,284
10 votes
1 answer
215 views

Post other people's code?

Some people are very good code golfers but for their own reasons do not want to join PPCG. Is it acceptable to post their solutions as answers to challenges? If at all acceptable, I would personally ...
  • 29k
4 votes
1 answer
136 views

What's the complexity of my answer?

I've never studied any computer science. So I've always passed over restricted-complexity questions, since I had no way of knowing the complexity of my code. Today, I decided to try and see whether I ...
  • 3,183
6 votes
1 answer
183 views

Invalid answers in the review queue, but OP hasn't had time to fix it

It happens quite frequently that short answers (Title + Code) appear in the Low Quality review queue, due to the automatic flagging mechanisms. In most cases, the answer "Looks OK". However, there ...
-2 votes
1 answer
140 views

User disobeying rules?

So last question that I posted. i.e : this, I wanted to ask because a specific new user whom I have warned almost on all answer he has posted (5-6) was not following, yet he keeps answering with ...
5 votes
4 answers
107 views

Pointing out bugs without comment privilege

I found a bug in a code golf submission but do not yet have commenting privilege. Is there a polite way for me to let the user know about this bug? The site offers me to "suggest an edit" but I'm not ...
  • 31
14 votes
3 answers
383 views

What to do when almost all answers are wrong?

In a recent challenge, almost all answers use an algorithm that yields the wrong results due to floating point errors. The challenge is/was not unclear, but there was no test case that led to the ...
9 votes
3 answers
248 views

Is it legal to submit a function that must exist as a method on an object?

For a challenge, I recently submitted the JavaScript solution [].push To be clear, this isn't x=>[].push. The entry itself ...
  • 3,682
27 votes
4 answers
625 views

Is a proof of impossibility allowed as an answer?

I was thinking of a proof of impossibility for a long-running unanswered question on this site. By a proof of impossibility, what I mean is a proof that no possible answer can solve the challenge. ...
  • 3,606
1 vote
0 answers
55 views

Is boiler-plate code required for challenges? [duplicate]

When solving a puzzle with an appropriate solution, does the programming language standard boiler-plate source code need to be included: For example, should I include all of this: ...
  • 191
17 votes
1 answer
443 views

What are the standard requirements for answering a [random] challenge?

There are lots of of challenges involving randomness. However, not all languages have a built-in method for randomness. Some languages, like python or most golfing languages make it really easy. You ...
  • 57.9k
13 votes
5 answers
473 views

Getting Started

I've been lurking for quite a while and have realized (after a technical interview) that I'm really out of practice solving problems like what is here. Is there a language that you recommend I start ...
23 votes
11 answers
670 views

Are baseline submissions serious contenders?

One of PPCG's oldest rules, mentioned in What topics can I ask about here?, is that all answers to challenge questions must: Be a serious contender for the winning criteria in use. For example, an ...
  • 208k
11 votes
1 answer
339 views

Multiple answers in a single post

Is is acceptable to bunch together multiple answers in a CW post just because the challenge is trivial? See e.g. https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/151280/43319.
  • 29k
3 votes
1 answer
96 views

Requiring non-builtin answers [duplicate]

Ever since PPCG was created, answers using builtins have been an issue for challenge writers. Sometimes, an interesting challenge can be posted, only for some languages (not necessarily golfing ...
8 votes
1 answer
195 views

What should be done about pre-posted Community Wiki answers that serve as a place for combining trivial answers?

Recently there was a challenge and the OP immediately posted a community wiki answer which would serve the purpose of combining trivial answers. Citing the answer: This community answer is for ...
  • 42.1k
19 votes
1 answer
4k views

Command-line flags on front ends

Our standard policy regarding command-line flags states that one should count the space before the dash (-) too, when there aren't any "free" options, since it ...
11 votes
1 answer
347 views

Is a transliteration tool enough to grant count as SBCS?

Prompted by this. I'll speak about Dyalog APL here, but this could really apply to any language. Background Dyalog APL has its own SBCS called ⎕AV. For backwards ...
  • 29k
9 votes
5 answers
476 views

Can interpreter flags causing major language differences be considered different versions of the language?

I recently (this morning) extended Cubically to have an internal cube of variable size. The cube size is passed via a third interpreter flag (3 for a 3x3x3, ...
  • 13.5k
15 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is a quine that reads a function's source a cheating quine?

So, in the last couple months, I have seen several (especially JavaScript) quines told that they are cheating because they stringify a function. Accordingly, I thought that was the standard - it's ...
  • 13.6k
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

Are modifications to existing languages allowed as submissions? [duplicate]

Say I have a language I'd love to use (like JavaScript for example), but there are tons of little pieces of functionality I'd love to modify built-ins with, like ...
27 votes
1 answer
359 views

Stop converting duplicate answers to comments

In case you didn't know, whenever you post the exact same answer as was already posted, it gets converted to a comment. I had no idea before I posted a crack on a cops-and-robbers post that someone ...
user avatar
38 votes
2 answers
873 views

Non-Trivial Answers get too few upvotes

It was recently brought up in chat that people are rewarded for trivial answers sometimes, which makes sense because this site is all about short code, but in other aspects, is bad because some ...
  • 40.7k
-1 votes
1 answer
197 views

What to do about BBC micro:bit?

BBC micro:bit is a piece of hardware wich allows to to run code, such as Python or Javascript, that is custom made for the micro:bit chip. However, it in itself is not a programming language. Instead,...
97 votes
5 answers
3k views

Let's allow newer languages/versions for older challenges

I've been thinking for a long time that our non-competing policy for newer languages (or language versions) is harmful. Just for context, we currently require all answers which require implementations ...
7 votes
1 answer
273 views

Should you answer a competitive question if your answer is not competing / is not competitive?

I'm curious, because some answers seem to be posted regardless of the winning answer. Should non-competitive answers be posted when better answers exist for entries of the same language?
  • 3,613
-1 votes
1 answer
204 views

The secret of upvotes

Okay, I admit the title is a bit cryptic but I couldn't come up with something better. As some of you may have noticed I have started spending a lot more time on code golf answering questions/...