Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
1,691
questions
9
votes
1answer
90 views
What should I do with this question?
I recently posted this challenge on codegolf. The idea was simple : reproduce an hexagonal logo, graphically or in ASCII art.
At first i thought it would be good enouth to be interessing, but the lack ...
0
votes
1answer
61 views
Graphical-output - trivial solutions
I found question where author ask about reproduce logo (reproduction do not need to be identical). In one of answer we see solution with low resolution logo picture made by hand
This solution indeed ...
2
votes
0answers
55 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 ...
28
votes
0answers
214 views
Sandbox instructions for new users
We now have a nifty new info-box to point new users to the Sandbox. Hooray!
But when a new user does go to the Sandbox for the first time, the instructions there don't give them much to work from to ...
14
votes
4answers
354 views
Should we close old KoTH challenges as off-topic?
Recently, a number of old king-of-the-hill challenges have popped up in the Close Votes review queue, with users voting to close them as off-topic as their deadline for submissions has passed. ...
-1
votes
2answers
83 views
Please explain why this page was not sensibly migrated to Meta
I am new to codegolf, but not new to the Stack Exchange Network, so I am puzzled (pun intended).
I recently joined this community and immediately searched for tips about how to post good php answers ...
-2
votes
1answer
84 views
Self promotion in submissions?
The self promotion problem. It has been solved in the chat (making a boundary between irritating self promotion and honest hope), but have we gotten to consensus about submissions?
I've posted a ...
-1
votes
2answers
96 views
Ethics of Golfing in Assembly or other extremely uncommon languages
My understanding of code-golf in general is that you're to provide the shortest solution in a given language. However, for most challenges, you could safely pick a language no one really is familiar ...
22
votes
5answers
344 views
An info box to point new users to The Sandbox
So along with site graduation, one new option we have is an info box on the sidebar. For example, you can see what these look like on Law or Judaism Stack Exchange (directly above the "featured on ...
7
votes
3answers
219 views
What to do with a challenge that is a dupe of a sandboxed one?
Currently it seems it is not so clear what happens if person B posts a challenge that is a duplicate of another challenge person A had already sandboxed.
While any user contributions on SE are ...
13
votes
1answer
264 views
Using **kwargs in Python
I am not sure if this question has been asked before, but I was unable to find the answer. My question focuses primarily on Python, but it might be applicable to other languages too.
Consider the ...
4
votes
2answers
142 views
Why are there still a lot of issues for a Sandboxed post Sandboxed for a long time?
When I posted this to the Sandbox, I have waited for 21 days before I posted the challenge to main. However, there are still a lot of issues in that post, and someone had found a duplicate. Why are ...
6
votes
1answer
147 views
Would this bit-fiddling question be on topic?
I have a non-challenge, bitwise-gymnastics question that I am looking for a home for. Would this be on topic here?
Per some requirements, I am trying to pack three data points into 16-bits for the ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
How should we handle random number generation in languages without it built in? [duplicate]
A number of programming languages have no built-in way to generate random numbers. How are we able to include these languages in a challenge requiring random output?
10
votes
0answers
178 views
May I return more results than specified?
I'm golfing in Lua, which does support such thing as multiple return values like this:
...
7
votes
1answer
248 views
Existing answers in KoTH invalidated by teaming; should it be allowed?
I posted this challenge about a week ago, and it has since become fairly popular with nearly 40 answers. In the chatroom, a user asked whether teaming was allowed. I said it was, if someone could ...
14
votes
1answer
293 views
Closing a more general challenge as a duplicate
Recently there has been a bit of debate as to whether this question is a duplicate of this question. So I though I would bring it to meta where we can have a constructive conversation, not only about ...
1
vote
2answers
66 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 ...
11
votes
2answers
350 views
What should this site be called now that it has a name?
This post says:
This site is now "Code Golf & Coding Challenges"
Indeed, this is what it says in our banner too:
CODE GOLF
& coding challenges
But our tour page says:
Welcome ...
1
vote
2answers
84 views
`sort` alias for Powershell
Source answer
Intro
Powershell introduced by Microsoft in 2006 for Windows OS.
Since earlier versions, Powershell provides predefined aliases for commands. For example, alias ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
Is it all right to edit challenge to recognize the winner?
I know that the best answer in a code golf challenge should be the accepted one. Is it a good idea to add a "final positions table" to the end of the post once a winner is found?
Something like this:
...
2
votes
1answer
97 views
Does [code-golf] count in bytes or character length
In the code-golf challenges, does it count in bytes or character length.
Because one character can 1 byte ranging from charcode 0 to 255, 2 bytes ranging from 0 to 65535, etc.
8
votes
1answer
163 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?
108
votes
14answers
2k views
Congratulations! Your site design is now live!
You may have noticed that the site got a bit less blue today!
Thank you so much for your input over the last few weeks. This has been a great process and I really hope you like your new theme. We ...
1
vote
1answer
94 views
Can a question be closed for being too complex (but not necessarily hard)?
This question is sort of a follow-up to this other one I found, which I found quite useful but not fully elaborating on what I wanted to know.
So, my question is this: I am working on a KoTH puzzle ...
11
votes
1answer
103 views
Updating the [sequence] tag info: suggestions
The current tag info of the sequence is doesn't contain any additional information and I'd like to improve that. Currently it is almost exclusively used for integer sequences (many times from OEIS) ...
2
votes
1answer
163 views
Would this be on topic for this site?
Disprove that this code generate valid n^2 x n^2 Sudoku Grids
I'm complete with my Sudoku Project and others have been skeptical that I can generate pre-filled valid Sudoku grids in poly-time.
Now, ...
35
votes
13answers
1k views
Here's your site design preview!
Three great discussions and 6-8 weeks later, I'm here to introduce you to your new site design! Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas to the discussion -- there were many great points of ...
0
votes
1answer
188 views
Can we still ban built-ins for \$\pi\$?
I recently posed a challenge about computing a function of \$\pi\$. It was closed for being unclear and received a number of criticisms. One of the main ones I think was that banning built-ins for \$\...
5
votes
1answer
160 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views
Who wins code golf if there is a tie?
On my code golf challenge, there are two tie 24 Bytes answers.
The first one (Excel) is great because of the creativity put into it and the second one (MATL) is just skill I think and each one should ...
25
votes
16answers
872 views
A subtitle for our site name
UPDATE: New site name chosen!
This site is now "Code Golf & Coding Challenges"
Thank you all so much for participating in this discussion!
Following Catija's comment on the site name meta ...
0
votes
1answer
64 views
In bash, can I use non-coreutil programs
Since bash scripts (or any other Linux shell scripts) are accepted as a programming language, I wonder what (Linux) programs are accepted as callable from the command line.
It seems that it is ...
4
votes
2answers
69 views
Is there support to approach 3rd parties to build a performance tool?
For code-golf questions, TIO has been a superb resource. However, for fastest-code challenges there is no equivalent tool available.
I believe we could explore working with one or more 3rd parties ...
40
votes
13answers
2k views
What should this site be called now that it's getting a design?
UPDATE: New site name chosen!
This site is now "Code Golf & Coding Challenges"
Thank you all so much for participating in this discussion!
As we're designing the site, we are considering the ...
0
votes
1answer
48 views
Not halt to prevent display from disappearing
According to Can Halting be considered output? and maybe some other links, programs should halt. However in some cases making program halt is easier(save the infinite loop in code-golf, etc.) but ...
1
vote
0answers
58 views
New PPCG Leaderboard Widget - Update 1.1 [duplicate]
You may have seen my previous post, in which I introduced a new leaderboard widget over the old system. Well, turns out there were a few major bugs with the program. I've gone through and fixed all of ...
19
votes
2answers
271 views
Introducing the New PPCG Leaderboard Widget!
Updates:
Update 1.1: Released on April 26th, 2019
If you are just here to get the code for the widget, you can skip down to the bottom of this post.
Hello! Over the past week, I have been working ...
2
votes
1answer
75 views
Which 'repeated substring' challenge should be closed?
Right now, there are two challenges,
Newer challenge: Check if a string is entirely made of the same substring by ouflak
Older challenge: String.prototype....
2
votes
1answer
103 views
How do we score colors in Desmos?
How would we score changing the colors of graphs in Desmos in [graphical-output] challenges with color-sensitive output? Currently, selecting the color in the menu costs no bytes as no characters are ...
2
votes
0answers
95 views
How can I encourage voting for non-golf languages?
I don't like golf languages, and I vote on solutions using them only if the solution has some extraordinary feature (like abusing a bug in the interpreter).
How can I encourage people to vote this ...
3
votes
2answers
144 views
Are non-uniform random distributions allowed?
I posted a challenge that requires programs to generate a random number in a range, and one answer used the rgeom function from R. This function uses a geometric ...
64
votes
13answers
2k views
The PPCG Site design is on its way - help us make it awesome!
The long wait is almost over!
You have been eminently patient while we've gotten other site designs finished and then completely redesigned the layout of the network. Now that all of that heavy ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
Challenge (Solve subset sum quickly if P = NP) incorrectly closed as duplicate [duplicate]
My challenge Solve Subset-Sum in polynomial time (...if P = NP) was closed as a duplicate of Golf the Subset-Sum Problem. But the restricted-complexity aspect of my challenge makes it very different. ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
Should I accept an answer? [duplicate]
I couldn't find anything related to this on meta, so here goes:
I've noticed that we've decided that competitions should be within each language for a code-golf competition to avoid golfing languages ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Where timing between outputs matters, does the solution need to account for buffering?
In certain languages (i.e. C), writes to streams like stdout can be buffered by default - what this means is that when one calls functions like ...
0
votes
2answers
91 views
Can I see a list of removed questions?
I see the bottom of vote list good and some good questions removed cuz of low votes. Is there way to see the removed or I have to go through all possible question id?
10
votes
3answers
184 views
Do different ImageMagick tools count as their own languages?
Here is an answer that I made recently: https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/181416/70328
A commenter suggested that I could remove convert from my code, and use <...
1
vote
1answer
98 views
“Voidhawk's well-explained answer was the first one here in APL”?
The phrase "Voidhawk's well-explained answer was the first one here in APL" appears in 3 featured questions on PPCG with an active bounty.
It seems out of place and I'm not sure what it means. Does ...
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Can we pass properties of the input as parameters? [duplicate]
Some challenges require, for instance, lists as input. A list has a property being its size.
Several languages have builtins to get properties such as the size for a list (all golfing language, ...
