For anyone interested, advent of code is about to start! (first puzzles dropping at midnight ET which is in around 11 hours)
We have a community in the instance at [email protected] for discussion about the event and that will have solution threads where you can post and compare against other people
Advent of code is a programming puzzle advent calendar where new puzzles drop every day until the 25th. They can be done in any language and puzzles are released on the AoC site
Last year I decided to do it in Rust, in order to learn Rust. I found out pretty quickly that you can't just jump from Java/Python/Haskell into Rust and expect to understand what's going on. This year I feel more prepared, so if time permits I'll make it right this time.
Lol, that reminds me of when I was in Uni, I had a systems development class, they taught in C, all the lectures, tutorials and assessments were done in C. Our final assignment was handed out the week the first Rust v1.0.0 build dropped in 2015. I had been following the hype around the development of Mozilla's new language, and I was so keen, I asked my professor if I could complete my final assignment using Rust. He said it's a great idea. Then cut to me furiously trying to learn Rust in just two weeks, so I could even start the assignment, including C interop, implementing functions with c-style interfaces for callbacks, and lots of unsafe blocks for memory manipulation and pointer manipulation. In the end I was just forcing Rust to be C.
It did work in the end, and I did get an A, mostly because the professor couldn't understand any of the Rust code.
Lol. I have a student right now asking to do an assignment is PowerShell. I'm inclined to allow it and probably give them an A because I don't understand PowerShell XD
I sure hope this is not how most CS courses are being taught
You gonna do Rust again?
Yep, I feel a bit more prepared now. I haven't had the time yet today, but from what I saw the first one shouldn't be too hard
Same. I only got through day 3 last year since I didn’t have time to do both the learning and the solving. I think I need a longer term project to give me more focus when learning a new language. This year I’m just sticking with my usual language Elixir, which I always enjoy.