A Programming Challenge

[andre]

A few weeks ago I set a programming challenge to some students. I am interested if anyone on this list can solve it.

The challenge is at jsfiddle.net/coas/wda45gLp

It is all to do with schappo.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/computer-science-internationalization_21.html

TIA

André 小山 Schappo

[Avtal]

Hi Andre (oops, André),

I didn't quite understand the problem statement.

Is it:

1) Fix the given code for function rep(s), so that it always returns the correct form of André (without a double accent)? (This was pretty straightforward, though I won't give the solution yet in case anyone else wants to give it a try)

2) Create a new generalized version of function rep(s1, s2) that takes two arguments, as you described in the later paragraphs of your challenge?

Avtal

[andre]

Originally Posted by Avtal

Hi Andre (oops, André),

I didn't quite understand the problem statement.

Is it:

1) Fix the given code for function rep(s), so that it always returns the correct form of André (without a double accent)? (This was pretty straightforward, though I won't give the solution yet in case anyone else wants to give it a try)

2) Create a new generalized version of function rep(s1, s2) that takes two arguments, as you described in the later paragraphs of your challenge?

Avtal

Hi Avtal,

Firstly, please do not publish your solutions, as I want to leave this as a programming challenge to the world. Secondly, thank you for trying my programming challenge.

A bit of background first: Few (Staff and Students) in School and University Computer Science departments have an understanding of Unicode. The teaching in Computer Science departments is ASCII, ASCII and ASCII. Actually, I think there are more people in School and University (Human) Language departments that have an understanding of Unicode than in Computer Science departments.

So, without an understanding of Unicode, how would one even begin to solve this programming challenge except just keep hacking until something works. The infinite amount of monkeys and typewriters (or in this case computers ) principle.

The challenge is both ① and ②, above. It is ① I am most interested in. My expectation was that those on this forum with some programming experience would be able to solve ① because you have an understanding of Unicode. You are involved in IDNs so, either you have learned about Unicode during the IDN journey or you understood Unicode before you embarked on the IDN journey.

André 小山 Schappo

[Avtal]

Thanks for trying to raise awareness of Unicode among Computer Science students. Although based on current trends, all non-English speakers will soon be communicating using ascii characters, and Unicode will only be used for emojis...

Avtal

[123]

I think I know what the problem is.

I have altered the code to produce the correct output. I did not write a generalized function.

Too lazy to write a generalized function, also I have never programmed in JS.

[andre]

Originally Posted by 123

I think I know what the problem is.

I have altered the code to produce the correct output. I did not write a generalized function.

Too lazy to write a generalized function, also I have never programmed in JS.

Thank you for trying my internationalised programming challenge

André 小山 Schappo

[andre]

Originally Posted by Avtal

Thanks for trying to raise awareness of Unicode among Computer Science students. Although based on current trends, all non-English speakers will soon be communicating using ascii characters, and Unicode will only be used for emojis...

Avtal

Another part of the student project spec is to classify internationalised exercises as beginner, intermediate or advanced schappo.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/computer-science-internationalization_21.html

This will probably require qualification eg If a student is familiar with Unicode I would probably classify Internationalised Programming Challenge 1 as intermediate but if the student has not been taught Unicode I would classify it as advanced.

On Sunday I wrote 2 more internationalised programming challenges

jsfiddle.net/coas/3c7y88ot
jsfiddle.net/coas/aau8cqaw

If anyone has ideas or thoughts for internationalised programming challenges/exercises please do let me know.

thank you

André 小山 Schappo

[123]

I wrote some scripts having the computer guess the language of a character(in an IDN) without using any translation APIs. Not sure if that would be a challenge but it was certainly a lot of fun.

was not reliable with Chinese/Japanese words obviously.

[andre]

Originally Posted by 123

I wrote some scripts having the computer guess the language of a character(in an IDN) without using any translation APIs. Not sure if that would be a challenge but it was certainly a lot of fun.

was not reliable with Chinese/Japanese words obviously.

I guess you did it by codepoints?

Did you use Unicode block codepoint ranges or unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/Scripts.txt to determine the human language script?

I covered human language script identification by codepoint in a lecture a few years ago and showed how in some cases it is possible to also unambiguously identify the language eg Korean Hangeul.

Script identification definitely makes for a good Internationalised Programming Challenge.

Where there are multiple languages using the same script (eg Cyrillic) did you program deeper analysis to determine the language?

André 小山 Schappo

[123]

Originally Posted by andre

I guess you did it by codepoints?

Did you use Unicode block codepoint ranges or unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/Scripts.txt to determine the human language script?

I covered human language script identification by codepoint in a lecture a few years ago and showed how in some cases it is possible to also unambiguously identify the language eg Korean Hangeul.

Script identification definitely makes for a good Internationalised Programming Challenge.

Where there are multiple languages using the same script (eg Cyrillic) did you program deeper analysis to determine the language?

André 小山 Schappo

I used numeric ranges from unicode.org I believe. It was just a quick check to sort and filter dropping domains or to estimate the number of a specific language in IDN in the zone file.

I do not remember if I had something for Cyrillic but I would try to look for Hiragana/Katakana to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese. I would of course often not work as domains are often just single words.

[andre]

Here is a fun internationalised challenge ➜ jsfiddle.net/coas/qa8190kn

André 小山 Schappo