Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are all good points. I must confess, when I first looked at some shootout problem code a few years ago I remember being in violent disagreement about how some of the solutions were implemented (ie thinking "If I were solving this problem in a non-toy way I wouldn't do it that way, that's a total hack for benchmark purposes"), but it looks like they've evolved a fair bit and I can't find the same complaints I ha…
> browsing the sample code (maybe with annotations?) At present, even from the home page, source code is only 2 or 3 clicks. Who would write those annotations? Currently there are 1100 programs, but they change as new programs are contributed and others removed. Who would do the work to create a series of blog posts discussing the development of each and every program? http://adventuresinmercury.blogspot.com/2011/04/…
Yes, but it's always at the "bottom" of the interface when you drill down. For instance, all of the content is there to make an interface which allows side-by-side comparisons of the implementation of the same problem in different languages. At the moment, you can do that but it involves opening two tabs and clicking forward and back through each language.
Who would write those annotations?
The annotations were just a throwaway idea. I noticed some of the programs are very well commented, some aren't. Probably good commenting & structure covers a lot of it.
Who would do the work to create a series of blog posts discussing the development of each and every program?
I'm confused by the rhetorical questions. You seem to be suggesting noone would ever do the work to explain the creation of a program, then you link to a blog post which does just that.