Code Challenges in many different languages, with tests
The objective of this project is to make it easy to solve a variety of code challenges in multiple languages by utilizing a single JSON data structure to hold test input and expected output values and to quickly and easily test your implementation against the data by making a simple command-line call.
This project has two main directories: languages and challenges.
Inside the languages directory are multiple sub-directories named
for the languages that you want to learn, such as javascript,
python, etc. Inside the challenges directory are multiple
sub-directories named for the code challenges that you are
implementing, such as fizzbuzz and isUnique. Inside each of these
code challenge sub-directories are language sub-directories, inside of
which are the implementations of the challenge in the respective
languages. So, for a Javascript implementation of fizzbuzz, the
directory structory will look like this:
Code-Challenges-Intl/challenges/fizzbuzz/javascript/fizzbuzz.js
and for Python, the directory structure will look like this:
Code-Challenges-Intl/challenges/fizzbuzz/python/fizzbuzz.py
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First, create a sub-directory in the
challengessub-directory named for the code challenge you are currently working on. For example, if you want to work on a code challenge calledfizzbuzz, then you would create the following directory structure:Code-Challenges-Intl/challenges/fizzbuzz
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Second, create a JSON file in this directory that contains input arguments and expected results from these arguments; the main structure of the JSON file is an array, with each array entry being an object of the form:
{"params": {"param1": value1, "param2": value2, ..., "param_n": value_n}, "expected": value}. For example, for the code challengefizzbuzz, you would create something like the following JSON file:[ {"params": {"n": 1}, "expected": 1}, {"params": {"n": 2}, "expected": 2}, {"params": {"n": 3}, "expected": "fizz"} ]
The params argument should be an object which the code challenge
will accept and use in its implementation.
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Third, create folders inside this code challenge folder named after the languages you will be implementing solutions in, i.e.,
javascript,ocaml,python,ruby,perl, etc, i.e.,Code-Challenges-Intl/challenges/fizzbuzz/javascript
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Fourth, create your implementation of the code challenge in each of the languages sub-directory, inside of their respective folders. Export the function as appropriate for the language.
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Fifth, go inside a language folder from the root directory, e.g.,
Code-Challenges-Intl/languages/javascript, where you will find a test runner, e.g.,Code-Challenges-Intl/languages/javascript/check.js. If a test runner has not yet been created, then you will need to create one, or send a request for one to be made. To test your implementation, execute the test runner from the command line, giving it the name of the code challenge (which must be the same name as your folder from step 1 above). For example, for JavaScript, being in the above directory, you would execute./check fizzbuzzor./check isUnique. For Perl, you would be in the directoryCode-Challenges-Intl/languages/perl, and you would execute./check fizzbuzzor./check isUnique. The programcheckwill report failed tests, and final statistics for every language.
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Nick Coghlan 2015-10-11: 27 languages to improve your Python
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Dave Thomas Interview: The Corruption of Agile; Ruby and Elixir; Katas and More
Katas
AB: You are the person who invented code katas, small self-contained programming exercises that refine a pattern of behaviors.
DT: Yes. The initial idea behind the kata was to discuss something I do all the time. I like coding and I like to experiment with code, so typically I'll take some algorithm and try coding it in different ways: different languages, different techniques, or anything that will give me different insights. And as programmers, we rely on tacit knowledge. Alfred North Whitehead said, "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them." And katas are ways of forcing your brain to internalize patterns of experience, to associate stimuli and response.
Practice is a strange beast. It's not play. It's not intended to be fun. It's also not work. It's not intended to produce anything. Practice is a thing entirely unto itself.... For practice to be truly effective, it should be focused and deliberate. The most basic form of practice is the drill. A good drill boils down to three elements: focus, repetition, and continuous feedback. A drill takes an activity and warps it until you are focusing on a narrow slice of that skill in a way that is repeatable, and provides immediate and continuous feedback.
Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent. So: choose one thing that you can kind of almost do. Deliberately warp it to focus on a specific aspect of that skill, make it repeatable so you can do it over and over and over, and then make the feedback loop as short as possible. Then go do it.
I had come to accept that talent is not boolean. It's not some innate genetic trait that you have to go look for and may or may not find. The truth is: talent is bullshit. Skill can be developed systematically. A SYSTEM is awesome. A system, you can understand. A system you can HACK. The technical term for levelling up is called skill acquisition.
A couple of researchers, a pair of brothers by the name of Dreyfus, created a model of how skill development works. The scale goes like this:
- Novice: where you know nothing
- Advanced beginner: where you still suck, but you start seeing what this might be about
- Competent: where you can start getting shit done
- Proficient: where you get shit done really well
- Expert: where the shit you get done seems like magic to pretty much everyone else.
Skill grows by focusing intently on the things that stretch you. Passion grows by giving something your full attention long enough to gain depth and understand nuances. Talent is bullshit. Skill is cultivated. Passion is curated.
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The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language Has Become the World's Most Popular Programming Language Douglas Crockford
The second way that a language becomes important is by becoming popular.
- JavaScript: The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language Douglas Crockford
...JavaScript has more in common with functional languages like Lisp or Scheme than with C or Java.