Nickolas's blog

Unknown Language Round #4
By Nickolas, 12 years ago, translation, In English

The round is over; I hope you enjoyed it. Here is the editorial.


The language of this round is Befunge, a lovely two-dimensional esoteric language. It's quite neat and convenient, especially for an esoteric language. Thus, for example, "A+B" problem, where A and B are given in separate lines, can be solved like this:

&&+.@

To learn the language you can read the original documentation (the rumor is that it is broken in some browsers), examples of programs at Rosetta Code and Progopedia article with annotated examples.

Our testing system uses befungee interpreter, which implements Befunge-93 dialect. To run the interpreter, one needs to have Python installed (version 2.6 or so, but not 3.*). Download files befungee.py, boards.py and funge.py to the directory with your programs and run the interpreter with python befungee.py <Befunge program name> command. Note the built-in debugger (run with --debug --delay=100 option) which allows to watch the movement of instruction pointer through the program and the effect it has on the stack.

As an alternative local IDE you can use WASABI which requires Java. Download interpreter arhive, unzip it and run with java -jar "Wasabi v1_4.jar" <Befunge program name> command.

In input data end of line is marked with #10 character (you'll need this for problems which require reading the string till the end of line). Your program's return is checked to be accurate within the whitespace and line feeds; it's not necessary to end the printed lines with line feeds, and if a problem requires printing several numbers, they can be separated with any number of spaces. Extra spaces at the end of line are also allowed.


Unknown Language Round #4 will be held on November 20th. Its rules will differ from the typical Beta Rounds:

  1. This round will be unrated and it will use ACM ICPC rules.
  2. It will have 10 problems, sorted by complexity.
  3. Solutions are accepted only in one language, which will be announced at the beginning of the contest.

I am the problemsetter for this round. As usual, this round is dedicated to someone, but this time it's simply me - November 20th is my birthday, and running a contest is the best option for celebration :-)

Announcement of Unknown Language Round 4
  • Vote: I like it
  • +142
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (31)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -15 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday!
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -62 Vote: I do not like it
    too early:)
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    • 12 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it
      I was afraid that I might forget it :)
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      • 12 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it
        In Russia there is a strange superstition that congratulations must not precede birthdays. However, no one knows why it is so. :-)
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        • 12 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
          Even in India there is a similar superstition
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        • 12 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it
          An obvious reason is that one never knows whether he is going to survive until his next birthday.
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -14 Vote: I do not like it
Is a rated contest ?
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -12 Vote: I do not like it
This contest is clashing with codechef Nov cook-off, whose problems this time are set by none other than tourist.Should have fixed a different date as the participation is going to go down drastically:(
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday Nickolas!
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday~~
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it
 Happy birthday Nickolas, wish you all the best. :)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday! :)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday and I agree with by the way
Oh!!!,it rhymes
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it
Happy Birthday! :)
November 20th is also Vietnam Teacher's Day :)
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12 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -51 Vote: I do not like it

Very awful language.Can't get a bit of it:(

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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +53 Vote: I do not like it
    It's awesome!!! ^^
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    • 12 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it
      I liked Befunge because it's a very simple language and easy to learn in 3 hours.
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it
The language selected was interesting and challenging.
I had lots of fun in this contest. When is Unknown Language Round #5?
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it
The judge really didn't like me.
My submission (882258) received:
 wrong answer 1st words differ - expected: 'codeforces', found: 'codeforces'
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    You might be printing some zeroes somewhere. You can check if this is the case by printing decimals instead of ascii codes.

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    • 12 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
      Thanks a lot, that was what happened T_T
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
    Comment edited after reading tgoulart's comment
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
    1. Read http://codeforces.com/blog/entry/2682 how to insert submission link properly;
    2. It means your solution prints extra non-printable character(s). Try to run your solution localy. You may see that it prints extra-character with code 0 after "codeforces".
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    You are outputting a newline character before the actual answer. So, your output is in the second line. Maybe you are reversing the newline character too.

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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it
Thank you for holding this amazing contest.
It is funny that what seemed to be pure weirdness three hours ago, seems familiar now...
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it
Thank you for an amazing contest! Very good choice of language, and nice problems. I was a bit sceptical about unknown language rounds, but after such a round I'm not :)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it
Happy birthday
The contest and it's language was very interesting :)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it
awesome , Like a game not a programming language  :)
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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
Thanks for the contest, I had a lot of fun solving the problems!

I had a little problem though... This submission is acting strange, it says the program is answering one thing but when i execute it at this site it gives the correct answer. What am I doing wrong?
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  • 12 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it
    The official interpreter ran locally outputs "5 7", so it must be some problem in your code. Esoteric languages are not standardized, so various implementations can behave very differently.
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