Current Quizmaster Retiring

[Alec Ross]

Well, there may not be much *code* in museums, but there certainly are
plenty of ancient computing devices in them, including chunks of
Babbage's creations, Pascal's calculator, "Napier's Bones", and
calculating devices retrieved from shipwrecks in the Mediterranean that
date back before the birth of Jesus. Then there's Stonehenge and the
Mayan calendar.

ISTR visiting a small room serving as such a museum in Manchester many,
many years ago. It was IIRC in the CS dept of the University, but was
possibly open to the public. In it were artefacts from the first days
of computing, including a log book, something like a school science book
for recording experiments. The entries included program code
represented in binary (presumably for entry via toggle switches), and
the experimental record of program runs.

See also:

http://www.computer50.org/

and:

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/subject_detail.cfm?key=32&colke
y=11

However I take the point about scarcity of _code_ archives; and museums
of exceptional code. At the moment I guess that most of this might be
found in a few books (e.g. C++ Gems), on the net, and in some (few)
people's heads.

I'd be interested to know of any such museums, though.

Regards,

Alec

 

[Michal Suchanek]

This is off-topic and I'm obviously biased, but I really believe
anyone who has never tried a programming challenge should. You don't
really think all those Ruby Quiz solutions are built because we like
extra work, do you? You might be surprised to find that it can be
quite fun.

Well, I did not said I never do so. I know the thrill of solving a
puzzle, be it in programming or otherwise.

http://pragdave.blogs.pragprog.com/pragdave/2007/10/art-in-
programm.html#comments

Wow, so we have one already. Good to know.
I like the comment at the end of the page. It may be that I am more
into taking things apart than building them ;-)

Thanks

Michal

 

[Eric Mahurin]

Note: parts of this message were removed by the gateway to make it a legal Usenet post.

I cannot properly express how much I've enjoyed running the quiz. It
is, quite literally, how I learned the Ruby programming language.
Summarizing the solutions each week had me reading through countless
examples of great code where I picked up idioms, learned new
algorithms, and just generally saw what good programming looks like.
That's just what I personally got out of it.

Hi James,

Thank you so much for all of the work you've put into ruby quiz. Although I
was only able to do a few, I learned quite a bit. There is a lot to learn
that applies to ruby and to computer science in general (any language). I
am envious of the knowledge you obtained running the quiz. I hope to find
time to go back and do some of the old quizzes.

Again, thanks for all of your work!

Eric

 

[Paulo Schneider]

The current Quizmaster is retiring! Long live the Quizmaster!

James, thanks a lot for all your hard work. You certainly made
learning Ruby a lot more fun.

Paulo

 

[Martin DeMello]

Given all of that, I've decided that the end of my watch over the
Ruby Quiz has come. I will run ten more quizzes, so we can say that
I covered three years no matter how the count is done. Quiz 156 will
be my last challenge.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

martin

 

[mortee]

* Although it would be nice for someone to volunteer to write up a
summary, I'm not sure it's necessary. The summary might be implicit in
followup discussions about solutions held on the mailing list.

Let me argue that the summary is an important feature of a quiz. In many
cases I didn't have the time to wade through all the responses and
solutions posted for a quiz, but I ran through the summary poted at the
end. I guess many people looking for ideas or just being interested may
be in similar position.

mortee

 

[Eric I.]

Hi James,

I was always amazed while reading the quiz solution summaries you
wrote at the amount of effort and care you invested into the Quiz.
It's impressive that you were able to sustain that level for three
years while keeping the quality level so high.

Thank you for your efforts, for injecting so much fun into the Ruby
community, and for creating such an incredible resource!

Eric

 

[thefed]

James, you have turned me into a programmer. No joke. If it weren't
for Ruby Quiz, I would not be here now.

To simplify an effect you've had on my brain, try this on a *nix:

File.read("/dev/zero")

Memory overload, you say?

First it overloads the RAM. The computer can't do anything. The user
contemplates what has just happened, and fumbles a bit with the
keyboard.

Then it hits him and the RAM clears. Life makes sense now. Things
work together and flow. Code is art.

Thanks again, James!

puts "here is what my brain looks like now!"
puts "1#{File.read("/dev/zero")}"

Thanks,
Ari Brown