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Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

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Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#51
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try this in Forth, or Factor. And be sure to read up on genetic programming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_programming

I will read more about GP for future attempts, thanks.

This is an exciting exchange for me because all joking aside I had this idea in the past and believe it should be a more active area of research.

Why Forth?

I doubt it is possible to solve "serious" problems with this approach but there is a whole class of work that is solved by mediocre programmers with copy pasting. We strive to automate other jobs, why not these? :)

We should come up with some sort of Turing like test for this. Like some small simple Wordpress job.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#52
post #45

has nobody else noticed that the default list always sorts with the same algorithm? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14761032/infinite-recursi...

That's because it always tried answers in the same order. If you tell it to keep going, it'll succesfully sort with http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4833651/javascript-array-... and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12137690/javascript-sort-... as well.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#53
post #33

Has anybody made a gallery of real implementations of Randall Munroe's hilarious ideas yet? I recall at least three exhibitions: this, M-x butterfly, and Hell Tetris; there are probably many others.

Also, geohashing

I'm waiting for 1Password to implement 936. http://xkcd.com/936/

It's not that I don't trust 1Passwords generation algorithm, but when I'm on a borrowed PC (wife's laptop, inlaws desktop or even at work where I can't install 1P) this would help. It's much easier to open 1P on my iPhone, look up a password and type in "correct horse battery staple" than to constantly have to refer back to my phone.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#55
post #45

has nobody else noticed that the default list always sorts with the same algorithm? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14761032/infinite-recursi...

Well, yeah... it's an algorithm. Hit "keep trying" (big yellow button) to find more results.

Or, fork it and play with the StackOverflow queries.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#56

Quick someone write a 'sort' that steals github session cookies. ;P

I only search answers posted before the comic was released for this reason :) (Also, I block any code that uses the word "cookie") Plus, I'm assuming that since they let anyone run arbitrary code on subdomains, they've thought this through.

> Also, I block any code that uses the word "cookie"

That is so incredibly ineffective that you could just as well leave it out. Maybe have a look at https://github.com/jterrace/js.js for a sandboxed environment.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#57

Wow.. beautiful! I know this is only for fun, but it can start something bigger. Basically, given an input and output we could search for an algorithm that works. It reminds me a talk that PG gave in which he states people making bots to optimize code and then an intelligent compiler could be done. It sounded very futuristic, but maybe it is not that futuristic after all...

Genetic programming; type that into google scholar and look at the late-80s and early-90s papers.

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#58
post #53
post #33

Has anybody made a gallery of real implementations of Randall Munroe's hilarious ideas yet? I recall at least three exhibitions: this, M-x butterfly, and Hell Tetris; there are probably many others.

Also, geohashing I'm waiting for 1Password to implement 936. http://xkcd.com/936/ It's not that I don't trust 1Passwords generation algorithm, but when I'm on a borrowed PC (wife's laptop, inlaws desktop or even at work where I can't install 1P) this would help. It's much easier to open 1P on my iPhone, look up a password and type in "correct horse battery staple" than to constantly have to refer back to my phone.

I actually changed my way to pick password thanks to that comic. There are longer and usually with the same entropy, but so much easier to remember!

Re: Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort

#60
post #5

If you give it about 30 seconds it works eventually, this is beautiful. I had a good laugh. Edit: It makes me want to do something crazy like setup a tool chain that cobbles whole programs together with trial and error like this. Throw enough resources at it maybe it will be faster and cheaper than your avg. developer. It will be an unmaintainable mess as if you used Brainfuck or Perl. But it will run, by god, it wil…

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