Re: MyKobweb Programming Tournament 2011 October Finals

From:
Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:31:07 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<5c579286-cd0f-4899-acab-9890e67f5053@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com>
Hagrid wrote:

Please visit http://mykobweb.weebly.com/index.html for more information=

 

Note however that admission requirements are:60% and above which means yo=

u do meet the requirements however you must register for at MyKobweb for co=
nfirmation and quality purposes. No fees are required.

 
Thank you for your time.


Thank you. I got pwned there. Your response gave me great pleasure, and I=
 admire its subtlety.

Your avowed purpose to raise the skill level of Java programmers in a fun w=
ay is honorable.
=00
Less pleasurable are the various grammatical errors on your site and the co=
ntest and ancillary documentation. I know that has little or nothing to do=
 with Java, but you should have someone competent in grammar proofread your=
 material to help the appearance of professionalism.

You are asking participants to put their code in a 'bluej.pkg' package. Th=
at does not follow the Java standard conventions.

Are you affiliated with BlueJ <http://www.bluej.org/>? If not, you should =
avoid giving the appearance that you are. If so, the package should be 'or=
g.bluej.somethingspecifictoyourcontest.*'.

I like that, for the "Stationery" question at least, the project specificat=
ion is as imprecise as one would expect in the real world. From the instru=
ctions I infer that you expect entrants to request clarification to resolve=
 the ambiguities just as one would for real.

I suggest that you not specify variable names for the solution. For exampl=
e, 'stationInfo' isn't really an ideal name for its purpose. You could fac=
tor in the self-documenting nature of variable names in the grading.

"Java programmers may not make use of third-party pre-built in [sic] method=
s or import such as StringTokenizer."

WTF?

I stop there. That's just ... Okay, I won't say it, but really, "third-par=
ty"? And even setting that aside, a good programmer makes use of the API. =
 Besides, the same document also says, "No supplementary materials may be u=
sed apart from the Java API." So which is it - you may use the API or you =
may not? Make up your frigging mind!

In any event, that restriction against 'java.util.StringTokenizer' invalida=
tes the entire contest as a means to teach good Java programming.

Buh-bye.

--
Lew

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