python coding contest

**André** · Dec 25 '05, 11:05 PM

Re: python coding contest

Neat idea!

I'm far from being a decent Python programmer but I managed (for fun)
to do it in a one-liner; however, it was definitely longer (in term of
number of characters) than the more readable multi-line solution.

André

**Tobias Bell** · Dec 26 '05, 12:05 AM

Re: python coding contest

André schrieb:[color=blue]
> Neat idea![/color]
Indeed
[color=blue]
>
> I'm far from being a decent Python programmer but I managed (for fun)
> to do it in a one-liner; however, it was definitely longer (in term of
> number of characters) than the more readable multi-line solution.[/color]

I made a readable version with 352 bytes and a non-readable with 290
bytes. But it's a really ugly lambda, map, reduce kludge. Looks like Perl.
[color=blue]
>
> André
>[/color]

Tobias

**rbt** · Dec 26 '05, 01:55 AM

Re: python coding contest

Simon Hengel wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello,
> we are hosting a python coding contest an we even managed to provide a
> price for the winner...
>
> http://pycontest.net/
>
> The contest is coincidentally held during the 22c3 and we will be
> present there.
>
> https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/...coding_contest
>
> Please send me comments, suggestions and ideas.
>
> Have fun,
>[/color]

Does positioning matter? For example, say I give it '123' is it ok to
output this:

1
2
3

Or does it have to be 123

**Remi Villatel** · Dec 26 '05, 03:35 AM

Re: python coding contest

rbt wrote:
[color=blue]
> Does positioning matter? For example, say I give it '123' is it ok to
> output this:
>
> 1
> 2
> 3
>
> Or does it have to be 123[/color]

Download the test suite and you'll see that only 123 on one line passes
the test. Sorry...

--
=============== ===
Remi Villatel
maxilys_@_tele2 .fr
=============== ===

**Bengt Richter** · Dec 26 '05, 04:25 PM

Re: python coding contest

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 16:39:47 +0100, Simon Hengel <simon@airlange n.de> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Hello,
>we are hosting a python coding contest an we even managed to provide a
>price for the winner...[/color]
^^^^^[color=blue]
>[/color]
How much are you going to sell him or her for? ;-)

Regards,
Bengt Richter

**Claudio Grondi** · Dec 28 '05, 09:05 PM

Re: python coding contest

Simon Hengel wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello,
> we are hosting a python coding contest an we even managed to provide a
> price for the winner...
>
> http://pycontest.net/
>
> The contest is coincidentally held during the 22c3 and we will be
> present there.
>
> https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/...coding_contest
>
> Please send me comments, suggestions and ideas.
>
> Have fun,
>[/color]

A funny thing happened to me.

The http://www.pycontest.net/ site was down for some minutes because :

"A problem occurred in a Python script. "

it seems, that

'some clever cheat'

has crashed it.

Claudio

**Simon Hengel** · Dec 29 '05, 10:05 AM

Re: python coding contest

> A funny thing happened to me.[color=blue]
>
> The http://www.pycontest.net/ site was down for some minutes because :
>
> "A problem occurred in a Python script. "
>
> it seems, that
>
> 'some clever cheat'
>
> has crashed it.[/color]
That was me, i broke things while tweaking some stuff.

Sorry for the inconveniences,

Simon Hengel

--
python coding contest - http://www.pycontest.net/

**Marius Gedminas** · Dec 29 '05, 11:25 AM

Re: python coding contest

I cannot not reach the contest site at since all this morning. :-(

**Marius Gedminas** · Dec 29 '05, 11:25 AM

Re: python coding contest

I cannot reach the contest site at since all this morning. :-(

**Claudio Grondi** · Dec 29 '05, 12:35 PM

Re: python coding contest

Simon Hengel wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello,
> we are hosting a python coding contest an we even managed to provide a
> price for the winner...
>
> http://pycontest.net/
>
> The contest is coincidentally held during the 22c3 and we will be
> present there.
>
> https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/...coding_contest
>
> Please send me comments, suggestions and ideas.
>
> Have fun,
>[/color]

It seems, that the site had some trouble to stay online and especially
to provide the ranking today.

I am a bit dissapointed, that my idea of not duplicating, but utilizing
the efforts others put into solving the job (titled by the submitter ID
'TheParasite') which resulted in a submission of a 15 Bytes large full
functional module was evaluated as having a 'syntax error' problem and
was placed in the ranking at the position according to the size of the
331 byte large .zip archive it was put into along with some necessary
installation instructions.

By the way: trying to submit along with the module complete installation
instructions and comments failed because there is a 345 bytes limit for
size of allowed uploads.

Claudio

**Simon Hengel** · Dec 29 '05, 01:15 PM

Re: python coding contest

> It seems, that the site had some trouble to stay online and especially[color=blue]
> to provide the ranking today.[/color]
There was a problem with our server, sorry for that.

Have fun,

Simon Hengel

**Paddy** · Dec 31 '05, 09:05 AM

Re: python coding contest

So, testosterone wins again!

We get to boast:
"Mine's smaller than your's"

Lets wait for Pythonic to go to bed, then sneak downstairs, go to that
tripple-X rated 'shortest solutions' website, and 'whack-off' some
solutions.
Unghhh, my solution... its coming!!!

Well don't forget to clean up before Pythonic wakes up.

Happy new year :-)

- Pad.

**Claudio Grondi** · Jan 1 '06, 02:45 AM

Re: python coding contest

> Please send me comments, suggestions and ideas.

Now, after the contest is over I analysed the outcome of it and have
come to the conclusion, that there were two major factors which
contributed to squeezing of code:

(1). usage of available variants for coding of the same thing
(2). sqeezing the size of used numeric and string literals

As (1) leads to less readable cryptic code it makes not much sense from
my point of view to dig deeper in that direction. As already mentioned
in this thread by Tim Peters ( pointing to
http://spoj.sphere.pl/problems/KAMIL/ ) it seems, that Pearl is here the
proper language of choice for such kind of problems anyway.

Trying to improve on (2) belongs in my eyes much more into the area of
problems discussed in comp.compressio n than to problems belonging into
comp.lang.pytho n .

So what is my point? Ok, I will mention it at the end of this post.

Before that I want to thank the originators of the contest and
especially the participants for providing insight into the techniques
they have used. I have learned from the contest what lambda expression
is good for and how it works where I failed to grasp it from reading
tutorials only.

I have detected, that it would be a nice thing to have in Python a
function able to convert values from binary string to an integer
representation as in my eyes both in case of long integer values are
more or less the same thing/object. The only difference is probably in
the header not in the representation of the actual value in memory - am
I right here? Will it make sense to have a string-integer object which
value can be used in both contexts as a binary string and a long integer
value?
Is there in Python any simple way to do the same as the following two
following functions I have put together today:

def longIntWithBits OfBinaryString( stringToConvert ):
intWithBitsOfBi naryString = 0L
for singleChar in stringToConvert :
intWithBitsOfBi naryString = (intWithBitsOfB inaryString<<8) +
ord(singleChar)
#:for
return intWithBitsOfBi naryString
#:def longIntWithBits OfBinaryString( s)

def binaryStringWit hBitsOfLongInt( i):
listOfCharsOfSt ringWithThePack edInt = []
exponent = 1
while i > 256**exponent: exponent+=1
for byteNo in range(0,exponen t):
noOfBitsToShift = byteNo*8

listOfCharsOfSt ringWithThePack edInt.append(ch r(i>>noOfBitsTo Shift&0xFF))
#:for
# reverse (in place) in order to get the highest bits of the integer
as leftmost byte
listOfCharsOfSt ringWithThePack edInt.reverse()
stringWithThePa ckedInt = ''.join(listOfC harsOfStringWit hThePackedInt)
return stringWithThePa ckedInt
#:def binaryStringWit hBitsOfLongInt( i)

print "longIntWithBit sOfBinaryString ('ABBA') =
%i"%longIntWith BitsOfBinaryStr ing('ABBA')
print
"binaryStringWi thBitsOfLongInt (longIntWithBit sOfBinaryString ('ABBA')) =
'%s'"%binaryStr ingWithBitsOfLo ngInt(longIntWi thBitsOfBinaryS tring('ABBA'))

which gives:

longIntWithBits OfBinaryString( 'ABBA') = 1094861377
binaryStringWit hBitsOfLongInt( longIntWithBits OfBinaryString( 'ABBA')) =
'ABBA'

?

And now my point I have promised to write about:

If squeezing code makes it bad code and compressing literals is more or
less compression technique and not Python programming, it is maybe a
good idea to try to explore what Python distribution provides as data
and modules and rewrite the seven_seg module, but with following
limitations:

1. it is not allowed to use any literals in the provided code
2. it is not allowed to misuse the names of the identifiers as a kind of
literals providing data
3. it is not allowed to use modules or files which doesn't come with the
Python distribution.

I have no slightest idea if it is possible to program a seven_seg
module under such conditions. It could be a sign, that it would be a
very interesting challenge worth to get involved into or a sign I have
no slightest idea about Python and programming.

What do you all think about it?

Claudio

**Steven D'Aprano** · Jan 1 '06, 06:05 AM

Re: python coding contest

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 03:34:33 +0100, Claudio Grondi wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> Please send me comments, suggestions and ideas.[/color]
>
> Now, after the contest is over I analysed the outcome of it and have
> come to the conclusion, that there were two major factors which
> contributed to squeezing of code:
>
> (1). usage of available variants for coding of the same thing
> (2). sqeezing the size of used numeric and string literals[/color]

[snip]
[color=blue]
> Is there in Python any simple way to do the same as the following two
> following functions I have put together today:[/color]

They are already pretty simple. You can make them even more simple by
using less complicated names and getting rid of the explicit end block
markers. It is sometimes useful to put in explicit end block markers when
you have long blocks, but when the block is just a single line, well,
I don't see the point.

Here is another possibility.
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import array
>>> A = array.array('b' )
>>> n = 1000000
>>> while n:[/color][/color][/color]
.... A.append(n&255) ; n = n >> 8
....[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> A.reverse()
>>> A[/color][/color][/color]
array('b', [15, 66, 64])[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> 15*256**2 + 66*256 + 64[/color][/color][/color]
1000000[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> A.tostring()[/color][/color][/color]
'\x0fB@'

The reverse transformation is just as easy:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> A = array.array('b' , "\x0fB@") # initialise from a byte string
>>> n = 0L
>>> for b in A:[/color][/color][/color]
.... n = n << 8 | b
....[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> n[/color][/color][/color]
1000000L

And of course these can be turned into functions.

--
Steven.

python coding contest

python coding contest

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