Questions tagged [rules]
Indicates you are proposing new rules or asking for clarification on other ones.
81
questions
1
vote
1
answer
114
views
What counts towards the byte count in a code golf answer?
I use Racket as my primary programming language and have been having fun the past week solving challenges using it. I came across a few answers from other programming languages that use TIO's header ...
- 453
-3
votes
2
answers
170
views
Built-ins or no built-ins; a dilemma in my question
Recently in this question, I had a discussion with ████████████████ whether I should get rid of built-ins.
I'm VTCing this since the built-in ban is particulary subjective here. I'd recommend just ...
- 2,099
5
votes
2
answers
210
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 ...
- 3,327
7
votes
3
answers
177
views
Can We Make 0-NAND OR Gates in [logic-gates] Challenges?
Some logic-gates challenges require you to use only NAND gates to solve a problem. Usually, constructing an OR gate from NAND gates requires 3 NAND gates.
However, an OR gate can also be constructed ...
- 5,271
11
votes
1
answer
255
views
Functions throwing exceptions: an exception to the rules?
I'm seeking greater clarity around whether we currently allow functions to throw exceptions, and if so, under what circumstances. There seem to be contradictory posts on this topic—several highly ...
- 10.9k
7
votes
1
answer
190
views
Should graphical-output challenges accept straight up image files by default?
I've often seen some questions tagged graphical-output and kolmogorov-complexity that have some answer being image files, and they are often disagreements in the comments.
examples:
...
- 803
13
votes
1
answer
324
views
Using resource exhaustion with a semi-deciding algorithm
Let's say that there is a standard code-golf question where you:
Have to find a solution that satisfies some constraints (eg. a math equation, etc.)
Or, if a solution doesn't exist, output the ...
- 7,828
4
votes
3
answers
96
views
Does a Vim submission have to end in a certain mode?
This question came up recently in a discussion of the validity of my answer to this question. It was argued that the answer was a V submission, not a Vim submission.
It is widely agreed that ...
- 9,130
14
votes
7
answers
767
views
Default policy for output in decision problems
Challenges tagged as decision-problem involve "deciding whether the input meets certain criteria". Although some challenges with this tag involve more than two categories, most involve only ...
- 104k
-13
votes
3
answers
943
views
What is the point of unicode gibberish?
It's been a few years since I came back into this forum to play some code golf and I am seeing a flood of unicode only "languages" where large operations are hidden in a single unicode character and ...
- 1,916
0
votes
1
answer
143
views
Graphical-output - trivial solutions [closed]
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 ...
11
votes
0
answers
197
views
May I return more results than specified?
I'm golfing in Lua, which does support such thing as multiple return values like this:
...
2
votes
1
answer
98
views
Input in Underload
Since Underload has no input command, I have some questions relating to hard-coded input:
Is hard-coded input allowed by default?
If it is allowed, can the hard-coded input be anywhere in the program?...
- 1,376
-1
votes
4
answers
255
views
If there is "a winner for every language" in a code golf challenge, does competitiveness matter?
The consistent attitude with regard to the golf language situation is that for every challenge, each language is a category, and subsequently there is a 'winner' for each language. This is also a very ...
- 3,831
0
votes
2
answers
562
views
If we find a programming language in the Library of Babel, can we use it?
The Library of Babel is a huge library with many books. For example, the book titled ",fkwpival.vbfz" defines code golf on page 29
code golf is a type of recreational computer programming ...
- 7,207
8
votes
1
answer
311
views
What is the consensus on built ins?
Originally on this challenge I banned built in matrix functions but people complained about it. I then removed the ban but there were few interesting answers given and some people complained and said ...
- 23.3k
7
votes
2
answers
206
views
Does output count if part of it scrolls off the screen?
Let's consider a QBasic solution to FizzBuzz. The code works correctly, printing the required output from 1 all the way up. The problem is, since there's a lot of ...
- 38k
7
votes
0
answers
335
views
Should I accept an answer to a question I cannot validate?
Based on information in this post I feel I should try and validate all answers to my challenges. That hasn't proved too hard so far which is good, but Dennis's answer here technically wins the ...
- 22.9k
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What is the purpose of "header" and "footer" for C++ submissions using TIO?
What are the rules for using c++ in code golf? In TIO, there is a header section and a footer section. Can you put your #includes in the header section?
Do you use this template?
...
- 842
16
votes
1
answer
223
views
Are bots allowed in The Nineteenth Byte?
People seem to know that active chat bots are prohibited in TNB, but I don't see that written anywhere. Is this indeed so?
And if so, are pure listening bots that never speak also prohibited? These ...
- 29.9k
28
votes
4
answers
471
views
ASCII Art Output Rules
I know there's a desire on PPCG for challenges to be flexible in terms of what they allow for input and output. However, I think there is an argument to be made that ascii-art is a special case, and ...
- 8,878
3
votes
1
answer
97
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 ...
- 49.4k
1
vote
1
answer
217
views
Hard-Coding in "One OEIS after another"
This question is about the rules of One OEIS After Another.
A comment was made about hard-coding the values of a particularly difficult sequence, for the sake of keeping the challenge going. Peter ...
- 1,980
2
votes
2
answers
115
views
Encoding data in flexible inputs
Most challenges that take a true/false or right/left or something like that input allow you to pick any two distinct values for these inputs. Recently, this answer came up. Clever use of this ...
- 41.3k
1
vote
0
answers
92
views
Rules on blockchain-based languages?
What are the specific rules for smart-contract languages (such as solidity) which run in a blockchain (and are considered languages because they can compute primes and that)?
Those languages are full ...
- 451
4
votes
1
answer
193
views
How should a full program in R be invoked?
Related to the discussion in this post.
There are multiple ways of executing an R-file. Each of these methods have either challenges in input or output. Which are acceptable to count as "Full program"...
- 2,984
4
votes
1
answer
230
views
How to score "command-line" flags in Japt
When I first created Japt I was young and innocent, and I didn't know how to use a command line. So I created the interpreter with HTML and incorporated the JavaScript right into that.
As Japt grew ...
- 49.9k
2
votes
1
answer
108
views
Languages with rapidly changing version
I have been considering the creation of a julia based golfing language.
Proposed name: Jules.
In implementation it would effectively resolve every program into a ...
- 1,161
1
vote
3
answers
135
views
Should Proxy Usage Be Included in Byte Counts?
Using this challenge as an example and this JavaScript solution, you can see that Kaiido had to include the following additional 49 bytes in order to be able to retrieve the images from XKCD's servers:...
- 41.6k
34
votes
4
answers
517
views
If languages are defined by their implementations, how do we judge answers that can't run on any existing computer?
It's a fairly long-standing principle of PPCG that languages are defined by their implementations; in other words, the language specification is entirely ignored, and we look at the behaviour of an ...
user62131
15
votes
2
answers
1k
views
If code fails to compile, but runs anyway, does that count as executing without error?
Here's a situation that came up recently in chat, and I realised I'm not sure what our rules are.
A few challenges require code to run without crashing/erroring. As such, a runtime error would make ...
user62131
14
votes
3
answers
655
views
What outputs should I allow for decision problems? [duplicate]
I'm looking for opinions on what outputs to allow as the Yes and No outputs on decision-problem challenges. The goal isn't to make a policy, but to help with a decision I often have to make when ...
- 144k
-1
votes
1
answer
146
views
Possible Quine Loophole [duplicate]
I am working on a golfing language, and I think I have figured out a way past the "a program may not read it's own source code as input" rule.
The idea is simple: every time a command is executed, ...
- 6,804
0
votes
0
answers
54
views
In code-golf is it always ok to print ASCII digits when an integer is asked for? [duplicate]
When the question clearly asks for an integer is it always OK to just print the ASCII digits of the integer without actually generating the integer value?
The consensus is yes. It's the programs/...
- 3,460
8
votes
2
answers
231
views
Character encoding-based rules with language without encoding
Oftentimes people will ask challenges that have rules hinging on the characters encoded by the source file (see restricted-source). For example, "Your program may not contain the letter ...
- 31.3k
37
votes
15
answers
3k
views
New users' guides to golfing rules in specific languages
What are the most important rules a first-time golfer in a given language should know? For instance, how do golfed programs usually take input and output?
Each language should have a single CW answer ...
58
votes
7
answers
1k
views
A proposal to combat Meta Bloat™: The Big Consensus Freeze
I believe it's a widely acknowledged problem in this community that the number of meta posts a new user needs to know to figure out all the rules has long got out of hand. We require certain answer ...
- 196k
0
votes
0
answers
57
views
What criteria must a programming language fit? [duplicate]
On the default loopholes there is an answer that forbids making languages that are made specifically for a challenge. This is definitely a good idea. However, there are loopholes even to this. A user ...
- 469
7
votes
1
answer
265
views
If your answer is acts differently depending on context, how safe do you have to be?
This is kind of a follow-up to / re-asking of "Should point-free function expressions be allowed when a function is asked for?" with specific reference to the only language I know how to golf in, j, ...
- 8,696
4
votes
1
answer
348
views
Answers written in "joke" languages [duplicate]
As an answer to this question, I wrote an answer in the "programming language" 2014 (screenshot). The answer was deleted, accompanied with this note:
I'm temporarily removing this post in ...
- 3,929
0
votes
1
answer
73
views
Full program in Clojure
This challenge requires us to create a "full program" that produces an infinite loop, and never outputs.
The problem is, I'm not sure what's considered a full program in Clojure.
If I were writing ...
- 3,558
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Codegolf rules and boundaries
So last time, I was hanging on codegolf, and came across the question Print the digital root, where one guy replied here with a one-byte code.
Of course, it takes advantages of the built-in and ...
- 105
2
votes
1
answer
91
views
Are questions targeting non-standard computer platforms allowed/wanted?
My question is related to this one.
Are questions/challenges explicitly targeting non-standard computing platforms such as FPGAs allowed?
If yes: Are they wanted or welcome here or are they ...
- 2,093
7
votes
1
answer
163
views
Is it OK to define an overloaded function?
Sometimes it would be quite useful in some languages to define two overloaded functions/methods as one answer. That is, instead of doing this (using Java as an example):
...
- 4,897
9
votes
1
answer
410
views
Are languages targeting FPGAs or other non-standard/non-sequential computing platforms acceptable?
So far, almost all submissions on this site are ones that target "standard" computers, namely devices that execute code in a typically linear fashion, with a standard variety of inputs/outputs (...
- 288
11
votes
1
answer
352
views
Case Sensitive Strings
Since this isn't explicitly codified anywhere, and was sparked by discussion surrounding my recent challenge, I figured I'd bring it up here for consensus before modifying the tag.
Related:
string
...
- 43.3k
4
votes
1
answer
149
views
Should a JavaScript image-processing submission support CORS?
A clarification I'd like to have is whether JavaScript submissions for image-processing should support Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. Specifically, it requires setting the ...
- 2,727
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How should vim answers be scored?
I like vim a lot. I've been golfing with it a lot recently. We already have clearly established that vim is a programming language, but there aren't any clear rules on how to score vim answers. The ...
- 58.9k
6
votes
1
answer
211
views
Can I set a challenge using Box-256?
Re-edited for further clarify:
http://box-256.com/ is an on-line game in which one codes in a form of assembly to solve the puzzles presented on there.
Can we ask questions on this site which are ...
- 261
7
votes
2
answers
315
views
On-topic to ask for help with an pre-existing code golf challenge from another site?
There is a code golf challenge on a foreign (not related to Stack Exchange) site with which I have a problem. The challenge is designed for Python 3 and has a length limit of 150 characters.
I ...
- 414