Return to Question

I'd like to suggest that to date we have missed a class (or maybe two) of programming puzzles.

ai-player would indicate a game played against a defined (but initially unknown) input or against a specified (but initially undisclosed) AI. The goal is to write the most successful program.

king-of-the-hill would indicate a one-on-one game played in a round-robin all-against-all. The game would need to have well defined rules and scoring, and the goal would be to write a maximally competitive program. Existing example can be seen in iterated prisoners dilemma contests and corewars. Example on codegolf.SE.

Problem these face on codegolf.se:

1. Keeping the game simple enough without letting it be trivial
2. Having someone to run the heats
3. Specifying the execution environment for the contestants
4. In the case of the AI player problem, when to reveal the contest input, and what to do if it is either too hard or too easy

Aside: I realize that these may be harder to write and police than code-golf, but we have had a number of complaints that the site is too close to all golf all the time. I hope to encourage enough diversity to maintain the interest of the people issuing those complaints, and to give them enough room to offer some non-golf puzzles.

I'd like to suggest that to date we have missed a class (or maybe two) of programming puzzles.

ai-player would indicate a game played against a defined (but initially unknown) input or against a specified (but initially undisclosed) AI. The goal is to write the most successful program.

king-of-the-hill would indicate a one-on-one game played in a round-robin all-against-all. The game would need to have well defined rules and scoring, and the goal would be to write a maximally competitive program. Existing example can be seen in iterated prisoners dilemma contests and corewars. Example on codegolf.SE.

Problem these face on codegolf.se:

1. Keeping the game simple enough without letting it be trivial
2. Having someone to run the heats
3. Specifying the execution environment for the contestants
4. In the case of the AI player problem, when to reveal the contest input, and what to do if it is either too hard or too easy

Aside: I realize that these may be harder to write and police than code-golf, but we have had a number of complaints that the site is too close to all golf all the time. I hope to encourage enough diversity to maintain the interest of the people issuing those complaints, and to give them enough room to offer some non-golf puzzles.

I'd like to suggest that to date we have missed a class (or maybe two) of programming puzzles.

ai-player would indicate a game played against a defined (but initially unknown) input or against a specified (but initially undisclosed) AI. The goal is to write the most successful program.

king-of-the-hill would indicate a one-on-one game with well defined rules and scoring, and the goal would be to write a maximally competitive program. Existing example can be seen in iterated prisoners dilemma contests and corewars.

Problem these face on codegolf.se:

1. Keeping the game simple enough without letting it be trivial
2. Having someone to run the heats
3. Specifying the execution environment for the contestants
4. In the case of the AI player problem, when to reveal the contest input, and what to do if it is either too hard or too easy

Aside: I realize that these may be harder to write and police than code-golf, but we have had a number of complaints that the site is too close to all golf all the time. I hope to encourage enough diversity to maintain the interest of the people issuing those complaints, and to give them enough room to offer some non-golf puzzles.

I'd like to suggest that to date we have missed a class (or maybe two) of programming puzzles.

ai-player would indicate a game played against a defined (but initially unknown) input or against a specified (but initially undisclosed) AI. The goal is to write the most successful program.

king-of-the-hill would indicate a one-on-one game played in a round-robin all-against-all. The game would need to have well defined rules and scoring, and the goal would be to write a maximally competitive program. Existing example can be seen in iterated prisoners dilemma contests and corewars. Example on codegolf.SE.

Problem these face on codegolf.se:

1. Keeping the game simple enough without letting it be trivial
2. Having someone to run the heats
3. Specifying the execution environment for the contestants
4. In the case of the AI player problem, when to reveal the contest input, and what to do if it is either too hard or too easy

Aside: I realize that these may be harder to write and police than code-golf, but we have had a number of complaints that the site is too close to all golf all the time. I hope to encourage enough diversity to maintain the interest of the people issuing those complaints, and to give them enough room to offer some non-golf puzzles.