----- Original Message ----- From: "Sacha Chua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Philippine Linux Users Group Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 11:24 AM Subject: [plug] Re: Programming in the Philippines.
> "fooler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > those questions are more on math-oriented problems... i would rather send > > engineering students with an average programming skills rather than a > > Not all. Take a look at the ACM problems at http://acm.uva.es > (excellent resource!), and you'll find a number of them use computer > science algorithms quite heavily. Minimum spanning trees, shortest > paths, funky data structures... =) yup that should be for a programming contests for computer science constestants and not for bs math contestants :-> > But yes, a strong math background is always a good thing. well a good example is dan bernstein... he joins programming contest (1991 & 1992) and won because all problems are math... during that time he is a bs math graduate and later on became a computer scientist.... he beats out computer science people http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~hilfingr/programming-contest/contest-winners.htm l :-> > > for example for the first problem which is problem A... you dont need a > > sophisticated programmer.. what you need is a strong foundation of > > mathematics to find the answer.... > > ... or the willingness to brute-force a solution, which will also get > you somewhere. ;) In fact, the judge who formulated this problem > initially thought of a brute-force solution and another judge pointed > out the nice, neat, elegant one-liner. problem A and E need not a brute-force solution :-> it is very obvious those two problems only need a formula and you need c^2 = a^2 + b^2 to start with to solve that problem and it can be done in one-liner code :-> > Sometimes contest problems specify time constraints that make it > impossible to solve a problem using brute-force methods. =) depends on your understanding of the problem... :-> you only sorted out to a brute-force methods if you cant find the solution to the problem :-> > However, > execution time is not and probably should not be the only metric of a > program's quality. execution time, is the top priority for a program's quality :-> > What about implementation time? implementation time if you have a deadline :-> it is upto the programer how fast he/she is to implement his/her best algorithm to beat his/her deadline... implementation time is not related to program's quality... as we all know, the more time you fine tune and beautifies your program... the more quality it can gets.... :-> > For ACM-style contests, as long as your program runs within the given > time bounds and produces the correct output, it's okay. as what i saw from those 8 questions... all you need is a good mathematician who knows to program to win that game :-> > Cleanliness of code > or flexibility of system design isn't even scored. =) true :-> > > > programming is all about algorithms... how fast is your algorithm... it > > doesnt matter how big your code is.. what important most in programming is > > Programming is not just about picking the fastest algorithm, but about > recognizing the different subproblems and applying or adapting > algorithms you know. when you start writing a program, you already recognize the problem and implement the best algorithm that you know :-> > (That said, many, many ACM problems can be solved with brute force. ;) ) if you cant resolve to a better solution :-> > Try some of the problems at http://acm.uva.es . You'll find some very > easy, but others will be pretty mind-boggling. <grin> They'll test > your ability to think on your feet, apply previous knowledge to new > problems, follow specifications exactly, and test your solutions. > I always hated having to think of all the cases! ;) how i wish sacha i could do that.... i already graduated with that kind of attitude... i have priorities in life now :-> in short, i have less or no time to play with that <grin> :-> fooler. -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
