31
votes
A proposal to combat Meta Bloat™: The Big Consensus Freeze
I propose that each commonly-used language have a separate explanation of the rules that most pertain to it, with code examples. I think this is more digestible that a big general FAQ, especially to ...
- 147k
21
votes
Default policy for output in decision problems
Truthy/falsy using your language's convention (swapping allowed), or two distinct values to represent true/false respectively
You can choose to
output truthy/falsy using your language's convention (...
- 78.4k
18
votes
Are bots allowed in The Nineteenth Byte?
Chat bots (that post messages) have no place in TNB. Since TNB is for discussion of code-golf and PPCG related topics, having bots in the room would be distracting and obnoxious, and would overtake ...
- 59.6k
17
votes
New users' guides to golfing rules in specific languages
Haskell
Basic IO
In Haskell, a valid answer is usually a function, unless a full program is required by the challenge.
Even if a challenge requires you to output an infinite stream of data (like all ...
16
votes
If we find a programming language in the Library of Babel, can we use it?
The language would have been created on the date at which the book was bookmarked for the first time
The Library of Babel is basically an encoding scheme: any possible string will exist somewhere in ...
15
votes
Accepted
Codegolf rules and boundaries
Answers that use a language (or a feature thereof) that postdates the challenge should be labeled non-competing. From Can I ever answer with a language invented after the challenge was posted?:
These ...
- 211k
15
votes
What outputs should I allow for decision problems?
One consistent, and one non-consistent
The thing I like about Truthy and Falsy is that often you may do things like output 0 for falsy and everything else for ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 100k
14
votes
Accepted
If your answer is acts differently depending on context, how safe do you have to be?
Our defaults say that submissions have to be full programs or functions.
REPL "programs" are also allowed, but they have to be labeled as such, and still have to conform to the defaults regarding ...
- 211k
14
votes
Can We Make 0-NAND OR Gates in [logic-gates] Challenges?
It depends on the question.
logic-gates is a tag for challenges about logic gates. It doesn't, and shouldn't, come with special rules like this.
If the person that poses the challenge wants that to ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 100k
13
votes
New users' guides to golfing rules in specific languages
Python
General I/O
Your submission should be a program or a function. It should print the output or return it. These example submissions compute the factorial in Python 2:
...
13
votes
Accepted
Should graphical-output challenges accept straight up image files by default?
The thing is that not all image formats are created equal. Some are just straightforward uncompressed streams of pixels, and there is basically nothing you can do to golf those down. However if your ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 100k
12
votes
Accepted
If code fails to compile, but runs anyway, does that count as executing without error?
In my opinion, yes.
Typically, anything that happens during the compilation stage is ignored. For example, a C/C++ program that produces warnings doesn't make any difference as long the executable ...
- 59.6k
12
votes
What is the consensus on built ins?
If most languages have a builtin, then the challenge is too simple
There are some exceptions, for example I like the existence of the Add Two Numbers challenge as a "language showcase", but ...
- 4,361
12
votes
Using resource exhaustion with a semi-deciding algorithm
No, that doesn't satisfy the rules
In many code-golf questions there are infinitely many inputs, which may be arbitrarily long. And, unless otherwise stated, your code should be able to handle every ...
12
votes
Accepted
Functions throwing exceptions: an exception to the rules?
Functions throwing exceptions should be allowed
based on this brief chat conversation
As long as the exceptions can be caught, this seems like a perfectly legitimate way of producing output or ...
- 18.9k
9
votes
New users' guides to golfing rules in specific languages
JavaScript
This answer is highly based on the Python answer, so thanks to @xnor for setting that up.
Your submission should be a program or a function. It should print the output or return it. These ...
9
votes
If there is "a winner for every language" in a code golf challenge, does competitiveness matter?
PPCG code-golf should not be considered an individual competition.
Because PPCG solutions are publicly displayed, many users peek at solutions by others in their language. Suppose Alice, a Jelly ...
- 21.5k
9
votes
What is the point of unicode gibberish?
I'm old school. I like bending real multi purpose computer languages like Python, Perl, Ruby... to their knees until the single last useless ascii char in the code is removed. Even languages that are ...
- 31.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Built-ins or no built-ins; a dilemma in my question
Disclaimer: I am relatively new to Code Golf, so I definitely cannot speak for the community.
Generally forbidding any built-ins is bad practice. For one, it's not clear what built-in functions are ...
- 7,131
8
votes
Requiring non-builtin answers
I don't think we can or should do this
The first reason I believe this is because we will never be able to force anyone to write a good answer. By implementing these types of rules we are optimizing ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 100k
8
votes
ASCII Art Output Rules
Allow strings, arrays of strings and 2D arrays of chars.
If the question is going to allow much more (e.g. outputting boolean values), pretty much every answer is just gonna use that and the question ...
- 20.3k
8
votes
Does a Vim submission have to end in a certain mode?
Vim submissions can be valid in any mode if the output is displayed
In Aaron Miller's mentioned answer, the required output is shown in insert mode, and hence it is valid. However, if a change of mode/...
- 27.4k
8
votes
What is our consensus on languages which do not halt by design?
Non-halting languages are allowed if their output is provably finite when required to be.
If a challenge requires infinite output, non-halting languages are of course allowed.
In challenges where ...
- 2,387
8
votes
Built-ins or no built-ins; a dilemma in my question
I'm just gonna briefly challenge the entire premise of the question: regardless of what the answer is, you shouldn't accept any answer, builtin or not.
I'll set aside the builtin ban question for the ...
- 50.3k
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