Multiple Programming Languages

[real_ate]

Hi everyone, i'm a complete noob to the site but i have a feeling that i will like it very much. It came well recommended

Just one thing struck me when i was setting up my profile, i noticed that people have completed all of the problems with different programming languages, but i could only select one language on my profile. is there any way that you can keep track of what language you answered each one with or is that just completely against the point of the site?

sorry if its a stupid question...

[daniel.is.fischer]

You'd have to keep track of which language you used for which problem yourself. Doing that on the site would cause too much load, sorry. Pick the language you will use most (or none) in your profile and use whichever language seems most appropriate for each problem.
Most important: enjoy

[euler]

Hi real_ate,

As daniel.is.fischer explained, keeping track of which programming language was used to solve each problem for every user would create a mountain of data in the database.

The "programming language" field in your profile is to let members know which language you believe is the best all-round for the purpose of these problems. So, although it doesn't prove that language X is the best, it is very difficult to argue with the fact that most users in the top 100 use it; similarly the ranking on the Statistics page takes the average rating of members who prefer that language along with the number of members using it to formulate a ranking of the top languages. It doesn't mean, however, that you only use that language. In fact, the purpose of the forum which you can access after solving a each problem is to post how you solved it; that is, your algorithm and the programming language you felt was best for the task. You occasionaly see members saying something like, "Although I swear by language X, the __ function built into language Y made this problem so much easier to solve."

[denisb]

one language only is not enough ...
(please, allow as many as we need)
((for me, 3(Prolog, C, Javascript : used quite every days)+7(used before)+16(other, read only))

[LarryC]

I just put my currently most-used language which is Python, even though I use C a bit too.

[quilan]

You... use prolog for PE problems?

I'm going to need to lie down for a while I think...

[ed_r]

I suggest that you (real_ate & denisb) use the additional information box in your profile to record your additional programming languages.

[BlueRaja]

You'd have to keep track of which language you used for which problem yourself. Doing that on the site would cause too much load, sorry.

keeping track of which programming language was used to solve each problem for every user would create a mountain of data in the database.

...lol? 4 bytes for a foreign key * 250 problems is about a kilobyte of extra data per user. Even with 100,000 users, that's only 100 MB of extra data, which is practically nothing for today's databases (by today's hard-drive costs, that's less than $0.02 of data)

[daniel.is.fischer]

If one had the disk and the database engine all to oneself.

[hk]

Ponder this:
Problem 200 was published on 28 June 2008
Problem 250 today.
On June 3rd 2008 there were 25263 users, today there are 67654 users.

So extrapolating: four years from now there will be 350000 users and 450 problems......

[BlueRaja]

So extrapolating: four years from now there will be 350000 users and 450 problems......

Which would be about 600 MB of data, or an increase of 500 MB over a span of four years. Even at today's hard-drive prices, we're talking pennies worth of space over four years (or, if we extrapolate: in 2005, hard-drives were about 60-cents/GB; now, they're less than 20-cents/GB. Assuming a linear decrease in price, in four more years 500 MB will cost you around -10 cents ).

I realize that the authors of this site have no obligation whatsoever to listen to users' suggestions, but for what it's worth, I agree with real_ate that having that sort of data would be extremely useful.
For instance, there are a number of problems I've been interested in knowing if anyone was able to do using only paper and pencil; to find out, I've needed to manually search that problem's forum, since people listed as using a language will sometimes do the problem by hand, and paper/pencil users will sometimes post a program.
Additionally, the forums are where I've gone to find better solutions while learning a new language (Python, Mathematica). As it stands, I have to manually search every page of every forum. It would be nice to be able to see all posts for a particular language from a given forum in one place.

[hk]

You are simply making the wong kind of calculations.
It's not storage space that will eventually kill you, but processor time and bandwith.
All that data are only useful if you allow for all kinds of queries on them.
As it stands now we had already to divert to a special configuration that separates the database from the user interface to handle the current amount of data.

Furthermore there is a sticky topic: Functional Requests.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1421
The moderators deemed it important enough to make it sticky, so use that if you have any functional requests.
(But read that thread thoroughly before posting).

[Rinick]

I think these is no need to have a language track for each user.
But it will be interesting to have a language statistics for each problem.

When you submit an answer, you can choose the language in the combo-box blow the input field.
The default value in the combo-box will be the language in your profile.
I guess that won't cause too much load to the database.

[quilan]

I think these is no need to have a language track for each user.
But it will be interesting to have a language statistics for each problem.

When you submit an answer, you can choose the language in the combo-box blow the input field.
The default value in the combo-box will be the language in your profile.
I guess that won't cause too much load to the database.

We can technically do that now (change what type of code it's listed as), it's just that most users don't bother with it (I do, just because I'm OCD about my submissions):

[ code=language ][ /code ]

[hiro2k]

So extrapolating: four years from now there will be 350000 users and 450 problems......

Even at today's hard-drive prices, we're talking pennies worth of space over four years (or, if we extrapolate: in 2005, hard-drives were about 60-cents/GB; now, they're less than 20-cents/GB. Assuming a linear decrease in price, in four more years 500 MB will cost you around -10 cents ).

This may be true in the world of the consumer, but in a datacenter it's quite the opposite. Project Euler doesn't earn enough money to warrant the kind of extra space that most requests would need. The fact that they can't have the database and the webserver on the same machine anymore should tip you off.