On 5 Okt., 15:09, James Edward G. II [email protected] wrote:
On Oct 4, 2009, at 10:41 PM, Mason K. wrote:
Here is an artificial intelligence problem waiting for an
algorithm. Would make a great but hard quiz problem.
The rest is self evident.Personal experience is everything. I can’t even read this problem.
James Edward G. II
Me too. 
I think a good Ruby Q. should meet the following criteria:
- An average programmer should find a acceptable (maybe not perfect)
solution in about two hours. Faster programmers than have the time to
write a small test suite ;)) - It should be possible to implement the solution in under 100 LOC
- The quiz should not require special skills (and if, provide
information) - The quiz should not require a lot of preparation (for example
finding a suitable web service as in the current quiz) - The solutions should be test-friendly
I think a good example, that I read today about is:
I also like the idea of multilevel challenges.
Examples may be:
Basic:
Write a small backup DSL. It should provide a backup command with a
include and/or a exclude pattern. Also provide a destination command.
It should be possible to compress the data.
Advanced:
Split your program into client and server and find a very simple
solution to send your backup over the network. Test your program at
least at localhost
or:
Basic:
Implement a kind of rename command to rename a method of a class. The
other command should be still usable, but print a warning on the
screen, that the method was renamed (possible syntax could be
“rename :method1, :method2”)
Advanced:
Provide additional information were in your code a old method was used
(file and line, or stacktrace, or…) This information should be print
to screen if the command “show_all_violations” is called
Basic: