Re: New Golf

On Saturday 03 February 2007 21:22, Andrew Savige wrote:
> --- =F4 Great Ton wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> >
> > 	"Robin  Houston" <[email protected]> writes:
> >> On the subject of new golf, I wonder if you golfers all know about
> >> http://codegolf.com?
> >>
> >> The rules are not quite the same as traditional Perl golf: the most
> >> important difference is that the whole of the shebang line counts
> >> towards the size, which effectively penalises the use of switches
> >> by seven strokes ("#!perl" + the newline) and makes the }{ business
> >> less useful.
> >
> > That's the major issue stopping me.
> > A 7 stroke penalty to use options is just too much.
>
> Agreed.

	You know, I'm pretty sure that if I was to visit some remote region of =20
Scotland, I'd find a pub. In that pub, I'm fairly certain I'd find a=20
congregation of old geezers, comfortably seated at a table in the back and=
=20
craddling pints of bitter in diverse states of draininess. And if I=20
discreetly, very discreetly scoot close to that group and perk my ear, I'd=
=20
probably hear them passionately bemoan how those darned foreigners are=20
butchering that old, venerable sport that Golf is...


	(I'd like to say that this parallel was meant to bring in the point of=20
acceptance and tolerance of diversity, but the truth is, the mental image o=
f=20
everyone present wearing kilt just cracks me up ;-)  )

=09
>  Challenges are always open
>
> This regrettable rule ruins the game of golf because:
>
>  1) It robs you of the joy of the post mortem: the joy of learning new
>     Perl tricks, the joy of discovering what the heck =F4 Great Ton was
>     up to, and perhaps the greatest joy of all, the joy of teasing
>     `/anick about making a blunderific Mr Magoo ... again.

	As if you ever needed to see my code to tease me in the first place. ;-P

	True, the Codegolf challenges does bereft the contestants of all those fun=
,=20
not to mention educative, collaterals. But, on the other hand, they do allo=
w=20
for contemplative golfing. Without a time limit, one can grow one's solutio=
n=20
like a bonzai tree. Slowly nipping a character here, binding an algorithm=20
there, and generally returning to it whenever one feels the need for a litt=
le=20
code Zen.

>  2) It imposes no limit on how much time you spend on a challenge.
>     Though perhaps not a problem for well-adjusted folks, I fear an
>     obsessive personality may spend far more time than they can afford
>     on a challenge, resulting in chronic distress in their personal life.
>     With the traditional one week tournament, at least you are strictly
>     limited in how much time you waste.

	Pfah. Humbug! Golfing is not *that* addictive. You just have to-- hey, did=
=20
they posted a new entry this morning? Ooooh... A Roman-to-decimal rehash of=
=20
the Fonality tournament. Aah.. Emm... Do you mind if we pursue this=20
conversation later on? I suddenly remember I have things to do...


Joy,
`/anick