Programming Challenge for Newbies in Clojure and Python too?

RubyLearning has been conducting the monthly Ruby Programming Challenge for Newbies for over a year now and so far 12 challenges have been completed. The 13th challenge is in progress. All this was possible due to the extensive support we got from Rubyists across the world. Also, you all indicated that we continue with these challenges in the months to come.

Recently, my colleague Dhananjay Nene posted a Python based solution to the 13th Ruby challenge. While discussing the solution it struck me that it would help Clojure and Python Newbies, if we opened up these challenges in these languages too. Dhananjay and some of my Clojure colleagues are interested in evaluating the submitted solutions in Clojure and Python and maybe we could start the challenges from Oct. 2010.

Clojure and Python enthusiasts – interested? What Do you Think? What is Your Opinion? Please share in the comments below.

Ruby Programming Challenge For Newbies

RPCFN: Economics 101 (#13)

By Dr. Bruce Scharlau

About Dr. Bruce Scharlau

In Dr. Bruce’s own words: “I’ve been using and teaching Ruby since trying out the cookbook example in the summer of 2006. As soon as I saw how much easier it all was with Ruby and Rails, I was hooked. I now try to do as much with Ruby as I can with my teaching and own work. It’s a joy to code with Ruby compared to using other languages, which don’t seem as intuitive by comparison. When I’m not busy working, then I try to spend time with the family, or get out sailing.”

Dr. Bruce has this to say about the challenge:

The challenge is useful for newbies as a way to extend their skills in a useful manner. They will learn how they solved the problem, and also gain from seeing how others solved the problem too. We all start from different places when we solve problems, so the ‘obvious’ solution to you, might not occur to someone else who has a different experience of Ruby. This is why it’s good to share examples and code together when possible too.

Prizes

• The participant with the best Ruby solution (if there is a tie between answers, then the one who posted first will be the winner) will be awarded any one of PeepCode’s Ruby on Rails screencasts.
• From the remaining working Ruby solutions, three participants would be selected randomly and each one would be awarded any one of Pragmatic’s The Ruby Object Model and Metaprogramming screencasts.

The four persons who win, can’t win again in the next immediate challenge but can still participate.

The Ruby Challenge

The Challenge

As a developer it helps to be able to understand a client’s perspective and to build suitable applications to help them in their field. This means knowing a bit about the world. We’ll help this background knowledge by doing looking at some economic data, and also testing our XML parsing skills.

The file cia-1996.xml is the data from the CIA World Factbook of 1996 in XML format. It has details about 260 countries across five continents. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to uncover the following details buried within this file:

1. What is the population of the country with the most people? Yes, we know it’s China, but just how many people lived there in 1996?
2. What are the five countries with the highest inflation rates, and what were those rates in 1996?
3. What are the six continents in the file and which countries belong to which continent? Can you also produce them in alphabetical order?

Once you’ve worked out how to do part (2), then you can do anything with this file; all you need is a bit of time. Knowing how to do (2) you could then do (3) without too much effort.

You can use any XML library. I used REXML as it’s already there if you have Ruby installed; so don’t need to worry about any gem installs. You may also want to look at how REXML uses XPath.

Submit your solution of your code, which includes a test file that answers the three questions.

How to Enter the Challenge

Read the Challenge Rules. By participating in this challenge, you agree to be bound by these Challenge Rules. It’s free and registration is optional. You can enter the challenge just by posting the following as a comment to this blog post:

1. Your name:
2. Country of Residence:
3. GIST URL of your Solution (i.e. Ruby code) with explanation and / or test cases:
4. Code works with Ruby 1.8 / 1.9 / Both:
5. Email address (will not be published):
6. Brief description of what you do (will not be published):

Note:

• As soon as we receive your GIST URL, we will fork your submission. This means that your solution is frozen and accepted. Please be sure that is the solution you want, as it is now recorded in time and is the version that will be evaluated.
• All solutions posted would be hidden to allow participants to come up with their own solutions.
• You should post your entries before midnight of 27th Sept. 2010 (Indian Standard Time). No new solutions will be accepted from 28th Sept. onwards.
• On 28th Sept. 2010 all the solutions will be thrown open for everyone to see and comment upon.
• The winning entries will be announced on this blog before 30th Sept. 2010. The winners will be sent their prizes by email.

More details on the RPCFN?

Please refer to the RPCFN FAQ for answers to the following questions:

• What Is The Ruby Programming Challenge For Newbies (RPCFN)?
• How does RPCFN benefit you?
• Challenge Rules
• Best Solution
• Can I Submit A Ruby Programming Challenge Topic?

Donations

RPCFN is entirely financed by RubyLearning and sometimes sponsors, so if you enjoy solving Ruby problems and would like to give something back by helping with the running costs then any donations are gratefully received.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to:

• Dr. Bruce Scharlau.
• GitHub, for giving us access to a private repository on GitHub to store all the submitted solutions.
• The RubyLearning team.

Questions?

Contact Satish Talim at satish [dot] talim [at] gmail.com OR if you have any doubts / questions about the challenge (the current problem statement), please post them as comments to this post and the author will reply asap.

The Participants

There are two categories of participants. Some are vying for the prizes and some are participating for the fun of it.

In the competition

1. Dmytrii Nagirniak, Australia
2. Kirill Shchepelin, Russia
3. Lukasz Hanuszczak, Poland
4. Rick DeNatale, USA
5. David Lake, England
6. Julio C. Villasante, Cuba
7. Dan Wanek, USA
8. Matthew Dahl, USA

Just for Fun

1. Casimir Saternos, USA
2. Paul McKibbin, U.K.

Previous Challenge

RPCFN: Cycle Tracks (#12) by David Griffiths.

Note: All the previous challenges, sponsors and winners can be seen on the Ruby Programming Challenge for Newbies page.

• The (#14) challenge by Joseph Wilk, U.K. is scheduled for Oct. 2010.

Ruby Programming and Education: A Match Made in Heaven

Ruby programming has received much attention in the past decade or so, especially with the advent of Ruby on Rails in 2005. While the blogosphere is abuzz with the latest on Ruby, let’s ask ourselves how, exactly, Ruby programming is conducive to an educational environment.

Of course, we could go into the relevance of Ruby programming, since if you’re receiving training in an educational environment to become a computer programmer, and you don’t know Ruby, then you are increasingly being left out of the loop so to speak. However, programming languages come and go, and education isn’t about trends; it’s about ideas that maintain value because they last.

Let’s then look at the philosophy behind Ruby programming and see how it is conducive to learning. For one, Ruby is flexible. It doesn’t have the rigidity of Java or PHP. In an environment that maximizes learning, flexibility is key. And Ruby is as flexible as they come. Yukihiro Matsumoto, the first creator of Ruby, noted what he was thinking about when he first began working on the programming language: “It’s kind of funny; when I used to develop in PHP or the stuff I did in Java, I was always looking for something else.”

Another great thing about Ruby is the enhanced capacity for creativity. As many Ruby users have noted, Ruby is more closely aligned with human thought. In this way, it’s much easier to use. And precisely because it’s easier to use, it’s more versatile when it comes to being creative.

A Ruby Programming slide show explains how Ruby enables creativity. It asserts that human beings lose productivity when they are stressed by “repetitive tasks, unnecessarily complex tasks, and by resolving problems that are not within the application domain.” Since Ruby effectively rids itself of these repetitive, machine-like tasks, there is more space opened up to be creative. With students especially, creative production is the key to learning effectively.

An aspect of the learning process that is absolutely critical to educational effectiveness is fun. We usually don’t think about fun when we think about education. But think back to your own school years. If you think carefully, you’ll know that the subjects that you learned the most and retained the most were those in which you were having fun. This fun of course, stems in part from creativity. When you are being productive, you are enjoying yourself.

Unlike other programming languages, you can do a lot with Ruby even if you are just in the initial learning stages. For students, the learning process is frustrating and hampered when little mistakes get in the way of picking up on bigger concepts. Whereas using programming languages like C++ can trip up the student easily because small mistakes in code cause the entire process to malfunction, Ruby doesn’t have these little first-time learner bumps.

Of course, these are just basic ways in which Ruby is the best learning tool for those interested in computer programming, especially beginners. However, just as in education as a whole, in which basic conceptual changes to the learning process lead students to better practices in learning, so too, does Ruby offer the possibility of easy, fun, creative learning by simple virtue of how the language itself is set up to work. In the final analysis, Ruby was made for students, both young and old, beginner and more advanced.

This guest post is contributed by Kate Cunningham, who writes on the topics of online university rankings. She welcomes your questions and comments at her email Id: cn.kate1 [at] gmail.com.

Do YOU want us to continue with the Ruby Challenge for Newbies?

RubyLearning has been conducting the monthly Ruby Programming Challenge for Newbies for over a year now and so far 11 challenges have been completed. The 12th Challenge is in progress. All this was possible due to the extensive support we got from Rubyists across the world.

However today, probably due to lack of time or other commitments, not many experienced Rubyists are willing to set a Ruby challenge for the newbies? So, what do we do with the newer challenges? Do we dis-continue with the challenges? Do we change it from monthly to as an when? What are your suggestions?

Newbies, do you find the challenge interesting and useful – what are your thoughts?

In the meantime, are you interested in setting a Ruby challenge for the newbies? If so, do email me at satishtalim [at] gmail.com.

Do post your thoughts and suggestions. I am hopeful that we would be able to continue with the challenges.

11th Aug. Based on the feedback received, I have decided to continue with the Ruby Challenges. However, these challenges may not be monthly but as and when. It’s now up to the Ruby community to help me out with setting the challenges. Let’s do it!

Introducing an intensive, online course for beginners that helps you get started with Clojure programming.

What’s Clojure?

According to Wikipedia: “Clojure is a modern dialect of the Lisp programming language. It is a general-purpose language supporting interactive development that encourages a functional programming style, and simplifies multithreaded programming. Clojure runs on the Java Virtual Machine and the Common Language Runtime. Clojure honors the code-as-data philosophy and has a sophisticated Lisp macro system.”

Stuart Halloway in his Programming Clojure book says – “Clojure feels like a general-purpose language beamed back from the near future. Its support for functional programming and software trans-actional memory is well beyond current practice and is well suited for multicore hardware. At the same time, Clojure is well grounded in the past and the present. It brings together Lisp and the Java Virtual Machine. Lisp brings wisdom spanning most of the history of programming, and Java brings the robustness, extensive libraries, and tooling of the dominant platform available today.”

Antonio Cangiano says: “Clojure has three main advantages over Ruby:”

1. It’s much faster than Ruby, which makes it a better choice for intensive processing.
2. It greatly simplifies concurrent programming, making the language more future-proof as hardware manufacturers continue to produce processors with more CPU cores.
3. Clojure emphasizes functional programming and tries to minimize side effects.

What Will I Learn?

In this introductory course, you will learn the essential features of Clojure that you will end up using every day.

Who’s It For?

An absolute beginner in Lisp and / or Clojure but with some experience in other programming languages.

Mentor

Michael Kohl

Michael Kohl (Twitter / blog) in his day job, works as a Ruby on Rails programmer for Tupalo.com in Vienna, Austria. Michael fell in love with Clojure on first sight sometime in early 2009, but unfortunately never seems to have as much time to work with it as he wants to and started being a mentor for RubyLearning.org in early 2009. His interests include mathematics, literature, travelling, foreign languages, chess and so much more that he really wishes he wouldn’t need to sleep.

Dates

The course starts on Monday, 13th Sept. 2010 and runs for a week.

Course Fees

The course fee is US$ 5 and the entire course fee will be donated to the Clojure project.

Hurry, registrations have started.

At the end of this course you should have all the knowledge to explore the wonderful world of Clojure on your own.

How do I register?

You first need to register on the site and then enroll into the course.

Note: We are planning for an advanced course “Clojure 101″ around 2nd Oct. 2010. Watch out for an announcement. In the meantime you can read about the first batch of the Clojure 101 course.

Many of you wrote in asking for details on how the course works. Here are some details:

Important:

Once the course starts, you can login and start with the lessons any day and time and post your queries in the forum under the relevant lessons. Someone shall always be there to answer them. Just to set the expectations correctly, there is no real-time ‘webcasting’.

Methodology:

• The Mentors shall give you URL’s of pages and sometimes some additional notes; you need to read through. Read the pre-class reading material at a convenient time of your choice – the dates may be specified only as a guideline. While reading, please make a note of all your doubts, queries, questions, clarifications, comments about the lesson and after you have completed all the pages, post these on the forum under the relevant lesson. There may be some questions that relate to something that has not been mentioned or discussed by the mentors thus far; you could post the same too. Please remember that with every post, do mention the operating system of your computer.
• The mentor shall highlight the important points that you need to remember for that day’s session.
• There could be exercises every day. Please do them.
• Participate in the forum for asking and answering questions or starting discussions. Share knowledge, and exchange ideas amongst yourselves during the course period. Participants are strongly encouraged to post technical questions, interesting articles, tools, sample programs or anything that is relevant to the class / lesson. Please do not post a simple "Thank you" note or "Hello" message to the forum. This forum is subscribed by several people, so please be aware that these messages are considered as noises by many people.

Outline of Work Expectations:

1. Most of the days, you will have exercises to solve. These are there to help you assimilate whatever you have learned till then.
2. Some days may have some additional assignments / food for thought articles / programs
3. Above all, do participate in the relevant forums. Past participants will confirm that they learned the best by active participation.

Some Commonly Asked Questions

• Qs. Is there any specific time when I need to be online?
  Ans. No. You need not be online at a specific time of the day.
• Qs. Is it important for me to participate in the course forums?
  Ans. YES. You must Participate in the forum(s) for asking and answering questions or starting discussions. Share knowledge, and exchange ideas amongst yourselves (participants) during the course period. Participants are strongly encouraged to post technical questions, interesting articles, tools, sample programs or anything that is relevant to the class / lesson. Past participants will confirm that they learned the best by active participation.
• Qs. How much time do I need to spend online for a course, in a day?
  Ans. This will vary from person to person. All depends upon your comfort level and the amount of time you want to spend on a particular lesson or task.
• Qs. Is there any specific set time for feedback (e.g., any mentor responds to me within 24 hours?)
  Ans. Normally somebody should answer your query / question within 24 hours.
• Qs. What happens if nobody answers my questions / queries?
  Ans. Normally, that will not happen. In case you feel that your question / query is not answered, then please post the same in the thread – “Any UnAnswered Questions / Queries”.
• Qs. What happens to the class (or forums) after a course is over? Can you keep it open for a few more days so that students can complete and discuss too?
  Ans. The course and its forum is open for a month after the last day of the course.
• Qs. How do I quit from a course?
  Ans. We wouldn’t like that to happen. However, in case you want to ‘quit’ from a course or for some reason want to un-subscribe, kindly message Satish Talim or email him at satish.talim [at] gmail [dot] com

Remember, the idea is to have fun learning Clojure.