groovicus

Has anybody given any thought to having a section of the forums dedicated to programming challenges or exercises? I have been lurking about quite a bit lately, and it seems that in addition to some of the very talented programmers here, there are also many that do not understand even what a basic data structure is. I just read one post (no offense to the poster) but they wanted a collection in which pop and push were already built in. I guess if you don't know how to implement your own methods, that is one thing, but it occured to me that if one doesn't even know what a stack is, then there is no need to know what push and pop mean anyway.

DaWei had an intersting idea for a project that checked user input, and rejected input that didn't conform to the required parameters... I thought that was a great idea for a project. That one would cover a few important concepts.

And the language really doesn't matter either. A stack is a stack, no matter which language it is coded in.

Then again, maybe there are not too many people that really care about what really goes on behind the scenes with a given language. Who really cares when there is a function/library/method/class already predefined for you... then again, maybe there are some that are.

I just thought I would throw out the idea anyway. Now I'm off to write an implementation of Djikstra's Algorithm....

__________________
HijackThis Team-SFDC

coldDeath

A section full of exercises would be quite good actually. And it would be fun to try and complete some when i'm bored.

I couldn't find many exercises/challenges on the internet

__________________

MBirchmeier

http://acm.uva.es/problemset/

This is what I used in the past... primairly in college.

Difficulty ratings,
Online validation,
Lots of problems,
etc...

Been a while since i've used it but I doubt the quality's dropped.

-MBirchmeier

groovicus

The ACM has some wonderful problems, but I wonder if they are not over the heads of most of those that are just beginning?? lol.. plus much of the time the solutions to contest programs are just ugly (IMHO)

__________________
HijackThis Team-SFDC

HaCkeR

I think its a great idea to have a section like that. but its no good getting us to want it you need Big K to agree

Ooble

It's been tried in the past, and failed for many reasons - the most important would probably be that anyone that has the ability doesn't have the time.

__________________
Me :: You :: Them

big_k105

Like Ooble has said this has been tried and hasnt worked. This is cause alot of people don't have the time and then the judging of a programming competition would also not be easy to do. So if you have any kind of problems you have that you think everyone would be interested in working on post them in the lounge. but dont post homework questions as that is just not cool

__________________
BIG K aka Kyle
Programming Forums
Kyle K Online

Please do not PM or email me programming questions. Post them in the forums instead.

groovicus

I guess I didn't mean to really describe it as a "competition".. that was probably a poor way to introduxe the topic. I just meant a series of standard exercises to help people sharpen their programming skills... no judging needed. Either the program works or it doesn't.

But I understand your point.

__________________
HijackThis Team-SFDC

Ooble

Oooh... in that case, go for it. What's the worst that could happen?

__________________
Me :: You :: Them

titaniumdecoy

This already exists as the USACO Training Program. You can register and are given challenges involving this kind of thing (manipulating text and data and writing algorithms). You then upload the C, C++, Pascal, or Java code and it is automatically run and checked before you can proceed to the next challenge. However, the program is not meant for beginners.

Unless someone has loads of time, which it sounds like no one here does, I think it would be a good idea to write up a list of challenges anyway and post them here.