From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2004-09-17T23:55:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Want a regular Ruby Quiz? (long)

On Sep 17, 2004, at 4:59 AM, gabriele renzi @ google wrote:

> James Edward Gray II <james@grayproductions.net> wrote in message 
> news:<1D0C97E9-081C-11D9-B4D9-000A95BA45F8@grayproductions.net>...
>> I see little value in the Perl Quiz's Regular/Expert distinction
>> though, so I would drop that.  When we thought up a tougher problem,
>> our quiz would be tougher and when we didn't it would be easy.
>> Different problems are different difficultly to different coders
>> anyway.  If one question doesn't appeal to you...  Well, enjoy the 
>> week
>> off.
>
> I strongly diagree with this (but this is just an opinion, anyway).

That's okay, I disagree with your opinion.  ;)  Let me tell you why...

With the Perl Quiz of the Week they alternate between a "Regular" Quiz 
and an "Expert" Quiz each week.  A Regular Quiz is defined as needing 
only the features described in "Learning Perl" to be solved.  In an 
Expert Quiz, anything goes.

Here's everything I don't like about this system:

1.  The definition is totally arbitrary.  I for one have never read 
"Learning Perl".  (I'm pretty sure it doesn't cover references or 
objects though.)  What book should we choose in Ruby land?

2.  The Quiz suffers occaisional shortages of material (it's run off of 
volunteer submissions), but only because therw isn't a Regular Quiz 
submitted and it's time for one to go out, or vice versa.  There may be 
50 Expert Quizzes waiting to be sent though.

3.  Semi-related:  This alternation has lead to a terrible numbering 
system.  There are two Quiz #22s, for example.

4.  Dropping the odd book definition, what would we replace it with?  
The fact remains that different problems are a different difficultly to 
different people.

(True story:  I was once in a timed programming contest with a LOT of 
better coders.  On one challenging question involving a quilting 
problem, I had it all coded up while many were still reading it over 
and muttering about "seam allowances".  They killed me the rest of the 
competition, but that one problem was all me.

Why?

My wife is an avid quilter.  I help her with stuff like that all the 
time.  I barely had to read the problem to know exactly what they were 
after.)

I'm not comfortable rating the problems, so the simple solution seems 
to simply be:  Don't.  I imagine the end result will be largely 
unchanged, though less orderly.  Sometimes, myself and others will come 
up with fairly easy problems.  (I promise to make a conscious effort to 
do so, in fact.)  Other questions will be more challenging, to some at 
least.  We just won't have a name for this variation.

And of course, beginners are strongly encouraged to submit their own 
questions from problems they've run into or over come.

That's my thinking.

James Edward Gray II