Swistakk's blog

Highliting syntax when hacking
By Swistakk, 9 years ago, In English

Hi.

As we all know, when hacking, plain black code on a white background written in faint font is shown to us. It is a pain in the insert here your favourite part of body to read such codes, I think that supposed difficulty in hacking shouldn't be telling "1" apart from "l" or coping with tediously looking code. In my opinion syntax should be highlited appropriately and hacking window should be much larger. I think this would be very noticeable for all users of Codeforces and will make hacking much more fun and less repulsive. Do you agree with me in this matter?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +128 Vote: I do not like it

Whore adds tags anyway? XD

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

Usually while writing with Perl neither Codeforces nor Notepad++ can "deobfuscate" code and highlight it correct (e.g. 10915426).

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    It's similar with Malbolge.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

    I hope that C++ and Java will cover 99% of people participating and that C++, Java and Python will cover 99,9% codes :P.

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

I completely agree and have mentioned this before. I really like hacking and this makes it very difficult.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -26 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for the info

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

Bredor where is your flashlight?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

I have another question: why can't we hack without an outdated buggy piece of crapware called Adobe Flash Grenade Player?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    What else do you suggest to prevent participants from copy pasting the code and testing it locally before daring to hack? :p

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

      Although, using image is an option, they are too much "convenient". There are lots of image-to-text software out there. And in this case where image is so "clear", it is even possible to write your own program.

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

        Do you think it will make any difference for people that really want to cheat in this way? I would say that current version is even easier, you always have the same color of letters on same color of background. Of course there are possibilities for writing some OCR of codes, but I don't consider such cheating as a big problem, whole nononsite competitive programming relies on faith in people being fair.

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

          Yes, it won't make any difference for people who REALLY want to cheat. But, on the other hand, there are people that may want to cheat when it does not require much effort. Doing couple of screenshots, cropping them, joining the resulting code parts requires much more effort than just saving the image and testing the resulting code. Also, it is not only the effort needed that matters. The former requires more time too.

          People that cheat just for fun, or people that cheat because if they do successful hack they will be in smth like top-100 and ~400-500 otherwise may be affected by the pressure and only cheat when it is, as I said before, "convenient" :P

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

        I don't see the difference between image and flash. What if I take screenshot as input to my OCR software?

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
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          Doing couple of screenshots, cropping them, joining the resulting code parts requires much more effort than just saving the image and testing the resulting code.

          Especially when you have to do it ~20 times.

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            9 years ago, # ^ |
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            Uhm, it's not that hard actually.

            On Mac, I have Cmd + Shift + 4 to take screenshot of specific part of screen (controllable with mouse). On Window there's also a tool installed by default that does the same thing (I forgot the name).

            After taking screenshot of first part of code, I just scroll down and take screenshot again. Since they're saved with creation time, it's already in correct order.

            On my computer, the screenshot is automatically saved into a specific folder. So after having all screenshots, I just run a script that merge the codes & do stress test & print the wrong test case & delete the images which are no longer necessary, which takes 1 more click.

            With everything setup, it takes probably less than 30 secs for 1 hack.

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              So after having all screenshots, I just run a script that merge the codes

              So you actually do it? :D

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                9 years ago, # ^ |
                ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

                No. I prefer solving problems. So I mostly never hack, unless I will gain a lot of points by just hacking blindly.

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