"The n00b Challenge"

[Sim]

I am calling all developers to "The Coding Challenge" Its not really the Noob challenge. I wouldn't mind judging myself, but I want to compete. I think if bertrand agree's to be the judge or assembles a team. I would love to showcase some code in this challenge against other users of this forum such as Danny (anti-dreamweaver user).

 

I have a topic which is simple for which everyone could compete in, begineers and pro's and should very fun for everyone.

[bluegman991]

Challenges are fun.

[Sim]

I call my game the ej7m6w game unless bluegame fixes his link to a real image then it'll be the "Smiley Game"

[Danny696]

Wow this is funny.

Alain has enought on his plate without being a judge of a silly competition which will take up his time, meaning he will loose money.

Very very few people here are Pro coders, possible just Alain.

So pritty much it'll be me Vs the forum right?

Anyway, Ive been thinking if doing something recently, and I'll be doing it tommorow, so wait for that post then see what happens ;)

[bluegman991]

Just uploaded it to tinypic it may not show for you for a couple of minutes (if at all) :eek:

[Sim]

I hope its the source to my creator =]

[Mufasa]

I'd join in, but according to dannyboy I'm a n00b :(

[Sim]

Contest would be for all including noob's like us.

[runthis]

so someone chooses a small topic like, a horseracing game, something thats comfortably one page, and those who compete submit the work in a given time period?

Howabout a user is shown a small script outputting but not the source and have to recreate it, closest one correct, and first one done wins.

Edited August 14, 2011 by runthis

[Danny696]

so someone chooses a small topic like, a horseracing game, something thats comfortably one page, and those who compete submit the work in a given time period?

Howabout a user is shown a small script outputting but not the source and have to recreate it, closest one correct, and first one done wins.

Second one, each person has individual coding styles, not exactly possible.

[runthis]

i started writing up a few php problems that require solving that i could submit to this

[bluegman991]

Second one, each person has individual coding styles, not exactly possible.

The coding style wouldn't really matter. I would guess the code would be rated on speed, security, similarity, file size, memory resources used, etc... depending on the language used and script type. Not rated directly on how the code looked.

[runthis]

Actually i made a small ten question PHP exam, if someone wants to give it a go?

[Nickson]

We could do this for sure, but I'm not too sure who all could be on the judge side. Also, contestants will need to accept that whatever the judges decide is final. Because I can already imagine the following scenario: Danny wins contest, half a forum goes on a rant.... I don't want to see such thing happen. I'm pretty sure that any decision made by the judges will be a correct decision. After all, I'm quire sure that all judges are fair and experienced enough to actually notice some differences.

Otherwise I find it a great idea, and I'm willing to invest time in this little thing. I don't mind managing the project-topics (I already have a few ideas), submissions and what else. I don't think members of the board should lay out whole projects, but just suggest ideas via pm, just to keep it fair to all. There are already 7 people who voted in the poll here -> http://makewebgames.io/showthread.php/40061-Would-you-compete-in-a-MWG-Mini-Game-Contest

If we get enough feed back, I'll set this up!

 

The coding style wouldn't really matter. I would guess the code would be rated on speed, security, similarity, file size, memory resources used, etc... depending on the language used and script type. Not rated directly on how the code looked.

Coding style does matter! Readability to another programmer is important, consistency is important, especially if you work in teams, so yes we should look at that as well. Of course it's less important then the actual working of the script, but it does matter. A simple example is the following:

$var = $var1 + $var2;

do you know what that line means or does in a program? I doubt you do, but we could also write the line like this:

$total = $product_price + $vat;

This is just a silly example, of course you have the context and position of the code as well. But I'm pretty sure you can agree, that the second line actually makes more sense than the first one.

[runthis]

You should be the judge nickson

[Danny696]

The coding style wouldn't really matter. I would guess the code would be rated on speed, security, similarity, file size, memory resources used, etc... depending on the language used and script type. Not rated directly on how the code looked.

If each letter, each tab, each space is a byte, lets say I tabbed it and you didnt, my filesize would be larger. And if the original file tabbed, mine would be similar.

[bluegman991]

O.k. wasn't thinking from a team point of view. And since scripts are distributed I guess readability would matter. Again was thinking in terms of code meant only to be read by the coder.

I didn't mean by code similarity. I meant by how similar the script you made is to the target script.

Since white space can be trimmed in between code. By filesize I was thinking in terms of excluding space tabs and new lines and using the right methods in the right place to make your code efficient. To make knowing your api matter.

Like choosing between using the built in methods which may be faster or building your own methods making it securer and faster and use less resources (using up more file memory) or build your own method using the built in method adding a few things to make it more secure (using more resources).

Edited August 14, 2011 by bluegman991

[Nickson]

You should be the judge nickson

I don't mind being a judge, but there should be more as one judge ;)

 

O.k. wasn't thinking from a team point of view. And since scripts are distributed I guess readability would matter. Again was thinking in terms of code meant only to be read by the coder.

Of course not, the coder needs to write it, but if you want to do mini contests, or explain things to other people / coders, your code needs to be readable. Thus, things like that all matter. So does documentation in fact when you deliver a certain project to whomever it may concern. Now, documentation & delivery isn't much of a priority of this mini-contest, so we could leave that out. But we still need to judge it, so readability is a must.

Scripts should be judged on at least the following:

readability -> how easy it is for others to read the code

usability -> how easy to use the script is

security -> whether there are simple ways to "cheat the system"

complexity -> how complex the written code is for the given task

And of course ... how close it is to the given subject!

[Lithium]

I don't mind being a judge, but there should be more as one judge ;)

One judge is easier to bribe than a few... :P

[a_bertrand]

I'm willing to make the judge... let's hope there is a bit more than 2 submissions as last time I did such thing I didn't got many more.

[Nickson]

I hope so too, but the less submissions, the less we have to check :-P There were already 7 votes last I checked, so I'm pretty sure that there will be more contestants ... I can however not say if they'll all enter.