I recently perused some samples of code golfing over on stackexchange. It seems like there are all kinds of insane, obtuse coding languages, including things only using limited character sets (or just the word "
chicken"
) and crazy geometrically based or nuclear-reactor inspired "
languages"
.
It got me thinking: DROD's language is a little obtuse, but it's not
Hexagony obtuse. Still, it could be interesting to create some basic programming challenges that take advantage of drodscript's unique property of existing inside of a video game with a player and a set of other objects in the room with their on fixed, predefined behaviors. In theory, any task you want to be script could be supplemented by things like roaches and doors and pressure plates. There even exists a hold (I forget which) in the Holds board which predates scripting, using the player's path through the level as the
only method of computation.
So, here's the sort of rules I might propose for a DRODscript-based code golf:
-You must build a single room to accomplish the task. Give the player an "
input method"
which allows them to enter an integer one digit at a time by moving in a clearly-defined manner (or whatever the task should take as input).
-Your score is based entirely on how many lines of DRODscript you use. You can choose to split this across multiple characters, and lines of script used in a defined character type with multiple instances only count one time, no matter how many instances there are. Using DROD elements in the room is allowed and highly encouraged, since this could save you lines of code if used cleverly.
-The player should be expected to "
type"
their input, then do something to indicate the computation should start. After this the player will wait as long (by which I mean as many turns) as necessary for the "
output"
to appear, which can be speech text, images, or whatever, as long as it's clear what the output is to the player.
An example task might be to give the nth fibonacci number, where n is the integer the player enters--with the understanding that DROD's capacity for big numbers is limited, so even the best code will only be able to cope for n's so large. I'm not totally sure how a quine task would work in this environment, but it would at least be interesting to explore, I suppose.
I don't expect a whole lot of interest in this. I feel like amid the people who do DROD architecture, the number interested in DROD scripting is even smaller. But hey, if there were a lot of interest it would be prime material for a contest, right? Voting could be based on how "
cool"
the implementation is, with bonus points for the winners in "
least lines of code"
.
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[Last edited by Xindaris at 06-09-2020 02:43 AM]