24 Hour Coding Contest - PHP Throwdown

[abc123]

dougal85 - I am in much the same boat. I hate University!

Anyway back to the subject at hand.... I like the idea and think it would be cool. Cheating would be a problem but what can you do?

Something I would find interesting would be getting feedback in the form of a score from 1 to 100. You can maybe work out the average score that each judge gives the code. Come to think of it you could probably have some php code to do this!

Why would I like this feature? Well I have a friend that also does php and he is always bragging about how good he is etc etc. I would like the opportunity to enter the competition with him and then compare scores at the end of it. I would not imagine either of us has any chance of winning but at least I get the opportunity to prove I'm just as good at php as he is. On the other hand he may get a brilliant score which would probably result in him annoying me even more!

Any thoughts?

[vaaaska]

I'm sort of curious how user info will be handled.

I'm not completely sure that I could finish the idea I have in mind in just 24 hours. If my name was out there publicly and then I didn't finish I wouldn't like that - especially since I know it might be too much.

Also, we have to use SVN? This would probably slow me way up...

I could reduce the idea, but, then I doubt I'd have any interest. It's about the idea for me...rather than competing.

Also, at least you could tell people what the big awards are...I find that rather strange that it's two weeks away basically and things haven't been posted.

And, it would be nice to know at least how many teams have signed up (via the website).

[dougal85]

Surely a 'prototype' system would be allowed. This would allow, Vaaaska and other developers to attempt more challanging and more interesting ideas.

It all depends on how its going to be marked.

I'd like to see another competition... maybe in the form of, you have 1 week to create a program and a limit on the number of lines (to stop somebody with nothing else to do coding 24/7)

Or maybe some directed programming, ie in 24hours program x application or in 2 weeks program x application. Some people might be not quite creative enough but damn good coders.

It's a very interesting idea, however, i'd like to see a litle more variety available 🙂 I'd find it hard to take 24 hours out of my life to code php (because of university), but i could set aside a few hours a day for a week.

vaaaska wrote:

Also, at least you could tell people what the big awards are...I find that rather strange that it's two weeks away basically and things haven't been posted.

That keeps it interesting... it could be $1,000,000 or it could be a lifetime membership to phpbuilders form :bemused: who knows!

[dougal85]

lol, how long || how many posts = 'history'

[dougal85]

oh well, i'm screwed 😛

EDIT

I'm trying to add more quantiy and quality... hmm. i'm drunk, so i cant think of anything. lol

[vaaaska]

"Quality".

I think I'm the only one to be censored for swearing...so...ummm...it's just another knock against my 2,100 posts.

Weedie would be the buddha figure that wanders in, says random insane stuff that nobody understands but which really answers the question, and then wanders off for a few more months.

[NogDog]

I think one of the requirements should be that each file begins with...

<?php
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
$errorLevel = ((int)phpversion() == 5) ? E_STRICT : E_ALL;
error_reporting($errorLevel);
?>

...and that each page that gets displayed includes the following link...

<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer">Validate HTML</a>

😉

[Piranha]

NogDog wrote:

I think one of the requirements should be that each file begins with...

<?php
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
$errorLevel = ((int)phpversion() == 5) ? E_STRICT : E_ALL;
error_reporting($errorLevel);
?>

...and that each page that gets displayed includes the following link...

<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer">Validate HTML</a>

😉

I don't see any problem that you use that on your pages, it would probably gain some extra points. But don't expect others to do the same :p

[dream_scape]

NogDog wrote:

I think one of the requirements should be that each file begins with...

<?php
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
$errorLevel = ((int)phpversion() == 5) ? E_STRICT : E_ALL;
error_reporting($errorLevel);
?>

I use both 5.1 and 5.2, and from what I can tell, E_STRICT alone does not report all errors. If you want to get both E_ALL and E_STRICT reported, you have to do "E_ALL | E_STRICT"

This is on a console running 5.2:

php> error_reporting(E_STRICT);
php> echo $var;
php> 
php> error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
php> echo $var;

Notice: Undefined variable: var in /usr/local/php5/bin/phpsh.php(181) : eval()'d code on line 1

Call Stack:
    0.0061     262144   1. {main}() /usr/local/php5/bin/phpsh.php:0
    0.0835     262144   2. ___PHPShell___->__construct() /usr/local/php5/bin/phpsh.php:37
   15.5807     786432   3. ___PHPShell___->_interactive_loop() /usr/local/php5/bin/phpsh.php:73
   38.3435    1310720   4. eval(''echo $var;\n'') /usr/local/php5/bin/phpsh.php:181


php> 

[leatherback]

Aaahh.. Shame!!

That weekend I will be in Rome for a weekend out-of-the-house. You think my partner will hate me if I bring my laptop, and lock myself up? One day behind the machine out of three days there.. That is reasonable right?

🙁

Will there be a second one?

J.

[Elizabeth]

@vaaska: Regarding the user info, to my knowledge the only teams that will be announced will be the [edit]winners[edit] in each category. Everyone else will remain anonymous as far as I know. All the judging is done anonymously that you can be sure of. So no worries if you don't finish the project, you won't be embarrassed 🙂
Also, regarding the prizes, we're figuring out how to best distribute them since we have quite a few. Look for that announcement in the next few days.
And for the number of teams signed up, we've got 56 as of right now.

@: depending on how this one goes, we'll most likely do it again, so no worries.

Let me know if you guys have other questions and I'd be happy to answer them 🙂

[vaaaska]

Thanks for that E.

If I can manage it I'll sign up at the last minute (I hope it's possible). I doubt I could do anything good or well enough to win but it's an excuse to build something I've wanted to build for awhile.

As far as the SVN stuff goes...apparently TextMate can handle SVN. Mac's don't really have any decent SVN things...yet.

[bpat1434]

I wish I could participate. Only problem is that Saturday is the day we're celebrating my birthday 🙂

Also, I admin a forum and am working on some heavy modifications for it which will take me up until the Throwdown date, so I'm not so sure I'd want to lock myself up for 24 hours to create an app. Although I have a fantastic idea for an application.

Good luck to all, and if there is another that I can participate in, I'll be sure to do it.

[dougal85]

Thats the unfortunate thing, 24 hours is quite a long time for somebody to commit. It's a shame programming takes so long 8-)

[bpat1434]

I could totally do it in 24 hours. It wouldn't look good, but it'd be like 70% there. But I think my g/f would kill me if I shacked up with my computer for a complete day, then spent the next one sleeping, and I didn't get paid for it.

[dougal85]

bpat1434 wrote:

IBut I think my g/f would kill

Thats what i meant, its hard to commit such a period of time all at one go.

Lots of people will have work or other commitments.

[vaaaska]

The 27th is a Saturday? Around here, weekends are exclusively blocked out for working on the new office (the thing that y'all referred to as a garage years ago). Heck, here's a picture for you to dream about.

[dougal85]

lol, cool.

Not all commitments are work related... for example, i'm a student and have an exam on the monday. seems unwise to take 24 hours our to do php two days before it.

[scrupul0us]

thewebsite is down for me... dns unresolvable

[stolzyboy]

me2