Rosetta Code:Village Pump/Uses Algorithm Template: Difference between revisions

 

:: Clearly, when an algorithm is specified the reason the task writer wanted to write that task was to see how that algorithm would be implemented. However, the point here is that such tasks may lacky utility outside of that rosetta code task page, and they may offer little insight as well. Obviously, few people would use ethiopian multiplication when most (but not all) languages implement multiplication already. However, it might be less obvious that a linked list implementation has little utility in some languages when in other languages the implementation might be useful and in other languages the facility is fundamental to an understanding of the language itself -- here the implementation does something useful (it lets the programmer work with a collection of items) but the specification can sometimes get in the way of that usefulness. But perhaps instead of a template, these tasks could be arranged hierarchically -- each "requires algorithm" or "unidiomatic" task could be required to have a parent task which asks to solve the problem without any restrictions on the algorithm. In other words, we might have a general Sort task and then underneath it would be filed all the various sort algorithm tasks. Or, we might have a simple "multiplication" task (which would mostly distinguish between infix, prefix and postfix and esoteric languages) and Ethiopian Multiplication would be filed underneath it. Or does this idea have flaws or introduce future issues? --[[User:Rdm|Rdm]] 15:29, 22 June 2010 (UTC)