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Re: Codefights

#81

Post by Huppie »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #59
pyre wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the comments is about understanding what the function is supposed to be doing. Reading the code is about actually finding the bug. I can see the argument for allowing one to understand the problem prior to hunting down the bug.

While I understand point people are making, I think understanding the problem is part of the debugging process, and should be a part of the puzzle and timer. I remember entering programming competitions in high school and college. The first 5 minutes, when everyone is ripping open the envelope of their problem packet and trying to find the easiest problems was always very intense, and fun! Sometimes you would read th…

The difference in high school IMHO is that I give it a big chance that everybody was a native English speaker there.

I agree with you that understanding the (full) problem is part of the challenge in some cases, but since the headline here is 'How fast can you debug?' it has to test debugging skill.

I'm lucky to read and write English about every single day but have colleagues who are probably faster than me at debugging code that will take a lot longer because they'll first have to carefully read and translate the specification before they could continue.

Re: Codefights

#82

Post by danielweber »

Tiks wrote: post #76
danielweber wrote: post #75

This is a lot of fun. Please say which language the problem is in. Also, many times it seems to hang.

everything is in javascript right now

How do you verify answers? Say there is more than one correct answer to a solution: do you run the code in a sandbox (with memoization) to find out if it works properly? Or is there only supposed to be exactly one proper answer for each question?

EDIT You should also provide a "reset" button if I screw up the form.

EDIT The horizontal scrolling is messed up, Google Chrome 36.0.1985.143 (Official Build 287914) m on Windows. I cannot see the right two or so characters on a wide question.

Re: Codefights

#83

Post by pavel_lishin »

laumars wrote: post #80
pavel_lishin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't people with dyslexia and poor eyesight have trouble reading the code as well?

Not with dyslexia, no. Because the problem lies with the syntax and semantics of the language and since programming languages are logic based rather than evolved from grunts with complex non-obvious rules, many people with learning difficulties (including myself) find it massively easier to parse code than English. To use myself as an example, it took me around 30 seconds just to read and understand the first challen…

Interesting, I did not know that. I thought most of the problems with dyslexia came from actually being able to read series of letters and numbers - I've heard it described as letters coming together in a jumble, and not in actual order that they appear in a word

Re: Codefights

#84

Post by Tiks »

woutervdb wrote: post #23

Liking the idea, too bad it's simply an awful experience with all the HN traffic. I hit "Sign up with Facebook", then "Edit what CodeFights can see", and the counter had already begun. After authenticating I got an empty pop-up which I closed by myself, and I finished the challenge. I then got the error "Authentication error". However, I like the idea and understand that this experience is not what you've made so I'l…

thanks for understanding woutervdb and for the upvote, would be awesome if you can give it a try now (the HN traffic has calmed down :) ) and let us know what you think -- email info @ codefights.com

Re: Codefights

#86

Post by laumars »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #83
laumars wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not with dyslexia, no. Because the problem lies with the syntax and semantics of the language and since programming languages are logic based rather than evolved from grunts with complex non-obvious rules, many people with learning difficulties (including myself) find it massively easier to parse code than English. To use myself as an example, it took me around 30 seconds just to read and understand the first challen…

Interesting, I did not know that. I thought most of the problems with dyslexia came from actually being able to read series of letters and numbers - I've heard it described as letters coming together in a jumble, and not in actual order that they appear in a word

That can be an issue in more severe cases, but even in those instances most programming languages aren't too verbose in their syntax that you cannot understand the logic process. Plus indentation obviously helps a lot there too.
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