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Discussion on: Answered: What the Heck is Code Golf? ⛳

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tobiassn profile image
Tobias SN

The problem with code golfing is that some people have created their own language to use for it, which means they can add new behavior specific to a single challenge, so any answers they post could be just 1 character, which could allow for thousands of different ‘opcodes’.

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Andrew Healey

That’s a really good point, Tobias. For anyone who may not know, there is a rule that stops languages being developed/edited after a challenge has been posted. But I believe what you’re referring to is where people have thought about the common challenges that do arise and are solving them with 4-5 hard to follow UTF-8 characters. I agree with you on some level that this is a problem. However, there has been an evolution in challenges to match this — questions that specifically make it hard for golfing languages to compete. For instance, Paint Starry Night, objectively. I think as long as people are explaining their process (and language) I remain thoroughly interested. For instance, this Jelly answer to ‘How high can you count’.

Great comment 👍.