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maroonrk's blog

ICPC WF 2019 Keyboard Issue
By maroonrk, history, 5 years ago, In English

Hello everyone!

I have a question. Have you ever participated in a worldwide onsite contest without a US layout keyboard? I've never, but I will!

The upcoming ICPC WF 2019 provides keyboards with Portuguese layout. (source)

Ok, it can happen that US keyboards are not available. For example, in IOI 2016 in Russia, provided keyboards have a Russian layout. However, at that time, participants were able to bring their own keyboards and I was comfortably taking part in the contest.

But in the next ICPC WF, we are not allowed to do that. All we can do is to bring stickers!

I wonder why the organizers made such a decision. I think it's disastrous. Our team practiced very hard with a keyboard with US layout. I'm sure that our (and most of other teams') performance will be affected by this issue. I believe that the organizers should let us bring our own keyboards if they fail to provide US layout keyboards.

How do you think about this issue? I want to hear the community members' opinions (and, if possible, the organizers' opinions).

Thank you in advance.

  • Vote: I like it
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  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (34)
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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

Just don't look to the keyboard :D Last year BOI had Swedish keyboards. I don't think that I wasted much time because we had a practice session.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +127 Vote: I do not like it

    That depends on your typing skill. If your fingers completely remember keyboard layouts including symbols, maybe that's fine. I don't, and I do look at the keyboard when I type. Once I was provided a German keyboard in a contest, and it was impossible to concentrate on the contest.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +69 Vote: I do not like it

I suppose organizers can't allow you to bring your own keyboards because they'll need to check all keyboards for hidden data transmitters and other cheating stuff.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

    That makes sense but I don't understand the difference between allowing keyboards in WF and in IOI. I think allowing US keyboards in IOI poses the same security issues but IOI decided that the benefits outweighs the risk and allowed the keyboards.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

      IOI and ICPC are two completely different organizations. They have different committees that decide what to allow and what to not. And change something in rules is a really hard problem

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +56 Vote: I do not like it

    And also a teddy bear can have a hidden data transmitter... OK. What about each team donating 10$ and fill a google form with desired model bought by orginizers?

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Not everyone brings teddy bear to contests. So it's easier to check

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Have you ever participated in a worldwide onsite contest without a US layout keyboard? I've never, but I will!

You can remap the keyboards to the US layout, thus teams' performance won't be affected.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +44 Vote: I do not like it

    If you haven't memorized that ^ is (shift+6) for example, then whenever you try to do XOR, you will have to stop and think about it. Everyone has the alphanumberic keys memorized, but personally, I don't have all of the special characters that you get when you press shift+a number memorized.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +87 Vote: I do not like it

      I was considering that you can get stickers, so you don't have to memorize everything.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +72 Vote: I do not like it

    Unfortunately, key mapping is not the only problem, since locations of buttons are slightly different from default US keyboards. For example, there is a button between left shift and 'z' button which is very inconvenient if you didn't get used to it. Moreover, button with "\|" is not at default position too and requires some time to get used to it.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

      I fear key position problem too. I have never used the keyboard that have a key between z and Lshift(and I use Lshift mainly, not Rshift). At least, if this key work as some random key, not shift key, our team are ended.

      Do someone know key mapping of (us layout + portugal keyboard)?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

        I have such keyboard in Russian edition (it has same keys positions, but with Russian layout instead of Portuguese). With a default US mapping button between 'z' and left shift is "<>".

        However, some Linux tricks can reduce your pain.

        xmodmap -e 'keycode 94=' will turn this button off.

        xmodmap -e 'keycode 94=Shift_L' will make this button the left shift (so you'll have big left shift divided into two parts).

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

      I have opposite emotions about the button between left-shift and 'z'. When I first went to a NEERC subregional I discovered with horror that on Windows and the Estonian layout, that key is the only way to access '<' and '>'. On Ubuntu you could also use AltGr+',' for those keys but that no longer worked. Miraculously, we actually managed to ask for a replacement keyboard with that key. The key was stuck after the first press and didn't work afterwards.

      I spent the night practicing typing on the US layout.

      Anyway I seriously suggest buying/lending a keyboard as similar as possible to the contest, and practicing on it for a week and I plan to do the same. Life has shown that nothing about keyboards can be taken for granted.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks to you. Otherwise I would not have noticed that sublime text is not there at WF. Now I need to practice on one of those in this short time. So I need suggestion on which of below has auto complete (using tab preferrably) and easiest to learn.

Among These
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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

    Are you kidding? There is CLion available

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    CodeBlocks is available and is fairly easy to adapt to.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

    I always use Kate, it is very user-friendly and convenient. However geany is not that bad if you use built-in terminal. If you don't, then geany is just kate but worse in many aspects. Spend some time digging about their functionalities like splitting view to two codes (great in Kate, cancer in geany), braces auto-completion, key bindings etc. to know how to get the most out of them and then decide.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +38 Vote: I do not like it

It happened to me to have a strange keyboard in some contests. The left shift is terrible :( it's ok in small competitions, but it's a very bad decision here. I think they should allow your own keyboard then, but I don't think they will do it.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

    Also, curly and square brackets are accessed via the right ALT key :(

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

      I ma pretty sure you can at least switch layout in OS. If you used to blong typing then it would not be an issue

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

This goes both ways. In the world finals last year, I had to use the US layout for the first time. Looks like the Portugese layout is very similar to the German one that I use, so it would have been much better.

Really ICPC should instead just allow contestants to request a certain keyboard layout within reason, and provide it for them. It's pretty unfair if some contestants are at a disadvantage due to something like this :/

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +51 Vote: I do not like it

This is the first WF that I attend. Is this a common issue? In the regional we were allowed with our own keyboard, so was the case at all the IOIs and regional international Olympiad that I've competed in. I find this very stupid, of course, but it makes even less sense that in order to qualify there, we had some different conditions. These are basically 2 different kinds of contests...Can anyone say whether this is how it usually works in ICPC WFs, or whether we may still have a chance to be allowed with our own keyboards?

Very useful downvotes, yet no answer. I'll ask it nicer here: is this how previous WFs were? Or did they change it in the last year?

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

    I attended WF 2016. No keyboard was allowed. AFAIK, last 2 years were the same.

    In 2016 layout was normal though.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

    Very useful downvotes, yet no answer

    I guess someone was trying to prove that color doesn't affect upvotes/downvotes :P

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +93 Vote: I do not like it

I still remember how we phisically switched y and z keys on newly bought keyboards before Yandex.Algorithm finals in Berlin

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