Questions tagged [metagolf]
Metagolf is golfing the output of a metaprogram. A metaprogram produces a program which solves a given task, and the length of that output determines the score of the original program.
53
questions
17
votes
23
answers
3k
views
Meta-cat program
Write a program or function that takes input and outputs/returns a full program (in the same language) that outputs said input.
Note that the input may contain any printable ASCII character or newline ...
- 1,995
12
votes
3
answers
473
views
><> numbers metagolf
I struggle to easily encode big numbers in ><>. If only there was a program that could find the best way for me?
What is ><>
...
- 11.4k
5
votes
1
answer
184
views
BitCycle Metagolf
Background
BitCycle is a two-dimensional Turing-complete programming language involves moving bits around a playfield.
Because I am too lazy to write BitCycle programs myself, you will be writing a ...
- 12.3k
13
votes
7
answers
546
views
Splinter metagolf
The language
Splinter is an esoteric programming language where data is stored in 'splinters'. There are three different types of syntax:
Simple character output: ...
- 34.7k
7
votes
2
answers
401
views
Gelatin integer metagolf
Gelatin is a worse version of Jelly. It is a tacit programming language that always takes a single integer argument and that has 7 (or maybe 16) commands.
Gelatin
Gelatin programs will always match ...
- 49.3k
20
votes
6
answers
2k
views
The 1+ Metagolf Challenge
I'm letting this one out of the sandbox. Hopefully it is well-written and make sense, feel free to improve.
So in order to make 1+ more popular (and ease the creation of golfed 1+ text-printing ...
- 3,876
12
votes
3
answers
821
views
Metagolf the OEIS
We've had Meta Regex Golf and Display OEIS Sequences. Now, it is time for Meta OEIS Golf.
Challenge
Given a sequence of integers, your program/function should output a program/function in the same ...
- 16.2k
6
votes
3
answers
398
views
Program ordinals and omega squared
A program ordinal is a (possibly transfinite) ordinal which can be assigned to programs in some language depending on their output.
To be more specific:
Strings that give no output have ordinal 0
...
- 3,819
16
votes
6
answers
862
views
Reverse busy beaver problem
In this challenge, Turing machines operate on a zero-initialized binary tape that is infinite in both directions.
You are given an integer \$N\$, where \$1 \le N \le 20000\$. Your program has to ...
- 8,415
24
votes
19
answers
24k
views
99 ways to say "I love you"
Inspired by this blog post.
Write a program that outputs 99 distinct programs (in the same language) that output the string I love you.
How the programs are ...
- 2,137
12
votes
1
answer
392
views
Self-displaying image [closed]
Background
There are self-extracting .ZIP files. Typically they have the extension .EXE (and by executing the file they will be ...
- 2,093
11
votes
11
answers
1k
views
N times program for the N-th number
Given an array of positive integers A as the input, generate a program that, when repeated for k times, output the ...
- 19.2k
13
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Text to Brain-Flak
Your challenge is to turn input text to brain-flak code that will output the text.
Tutorial taken from here with permission here
Brain-Flak has two stacks, known as 'left' and 'right'. The active ...
user63187
17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Google's Hopping Bunny
On December 4, 2017, the Google Doodle was a graphical programming game featuring a bunny. The later levels were nicely non-trivial and they seemed like a great candidate for an atomic-golf challenge.
...
- 16k
18
votes
1
answer
288
views
Brainflak Multiplication Metagolf
This question is the first of several Brain-flak Birthday challenges designed to celebrate Brain-Flak's first Birthday! You can find more information about Brain-Flak's Birthday here
Last summer we ...
- 95.6k
19
votes
3
answers
790
views
Meta radiation hardener
Background
On this site, we occasionally have questions requiring programs to be "radiation hardened"; this means that the program has to be able to survive the deletion of one or more bytes, no ...
user62131
2
votes
7
answers
928
views
Kolmogorov Complexity Meta Golfer
Mike Bufardeci (Pyth) - 175 bytes
Leo (Retina) - 175 bytes
devRicher (Lua) - 182 bytes
Peter Taylor (CJam) - Waiting for clarification
Lyth (C++11) - Waiting for clarification
Edit: Several ...
- 3,695
13
votes
3
answers
832
views
Combinatory Conundrum!
Introduction: Combinatory Logic
Combinatory logic (CL) is based off of things called combinators, which are basically functions. There are two basic "built-in" combinators, ...
- 6,972
12
votes
1
answer
301
views
Maths Metagolf Mania!
Mathemania Specs:
Every piece of Mathemania code starts off with the number 2. From the 2, you can do the following operations:
...
- 6,972
44
votes
10
answers
4k
views
There can be only 1!
Your task is, given a positive integer n, to generate an expression that equals the number n.
The catch is: you're only allowed ...
- 6,972
30
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Golf a Brain-Flak Integer
Integers are tedious to represent in Brain-Flak. There are 8 operators:
...
- 163k
3
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Do not repeat yourself
Inspired by this challenge
Given a number m, output a program that prints out the string Do not repeat yourself.
Now for the ...
- 7,790
20
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Shortest simple regex matching a binary word
Task
Define a simple regex as a non-empty regular expression consisting only of
characters 0 and 1,
grouping parentheses ...
- 67.9k
17
votes
4
answers
946
views
Actually Integer Metagolf
Background
Actually (the successor to Seriously) is a stack-based imperative golfing language I created in November of 2015. Like many other golfing languages, it has one-byte commands that perform ...
user45941
26
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Auto BATCH golfer
I love BATCH, despite its shocking lack of functional commands, despite even due to its lack of non-integer support. Why? Because this works:
SET var=SET
%var% i=0
...
- 39.8k
6
votes
2
answers
494
views
Create the shortest BitShift
Introduction
BitShift is an esolang, created by me, to output strings. Sounds boring, is boring. However, the only instructions available to BitShift are 0 and <...
- 5,899
25
votes
4
answers
712
views
Starry Metagolf
Starry is a funny esoteric programming language in which code consists only of +*.,`' where the actual command represented by each of those characters is determined ...
- 196k
34
votes
1
answer
768
views
Program the Cup-Stacking Robot
I'm sure everyone has seen before that cups can be stacked into pyramids (and other shapes):
A
A A A
A A A A A
A A A A A A A A
...
- 196k
22
votes
7
answers
831
views
Outputting a base-proof expression
Background
In some possible futures, the world will convert their numerical systems from decimal (base 10 or b10) to some other base (binary ...
- 49.9k
24
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Golfing strings in Fourier
Challenge
Given a string as input, golf down the Fourier program which outputs that string.
In Fourier there is no easy way to output a string: you have to go through each character code and output ...
- 23.2k
24
votes
5
answers
664
views
StickStack Numbers
StickStack is a very simple stack-based programming language with only two instructions:
| pushes the length of the stack onto the stack
...
- 20.8k
11
votes
3
answers
821
views
Randomized Brainfuck Compiler
Joe is your average BF developer. He is about to check in his code changes to their repository when he gets a call from his boss. "Joe! The new client's machine is broken! The brainfuck interpreter ...
- 25.7k
7
votes
1
answer
319
views
Help My Brother Work on his Tan(gent)!
This challenge is entirely fictional. There is no time limit for this challenge.
My little brother is terrible with computers! He saved up all of his money to buy a new one, and within half an hour ...
- 5,420
16
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Express all 16 boolean functions with the less than operator
There are 16 distinct boolean functions for two binary variables, A and B:
...
- 89.2k
11
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Encoding an URL in brainfuck
Inspired by this question, your goal today is to encode an URL in brainfuck.
My browser has been hacked! The location bar has been turned into a brainfuck interpreter. I need a program that turns an ...
- 39k
11
votes
8
answers
1k
views
Generate a Brainf_ck program that outputs a string of given length
Your friend is trying to break into a vault that has a peculiar locking system: it requires a certain number of gentle knocks in a particular spot. Your friend discovered the number (which is in the ...
- 13.1k
11
votes
3
answers
468
views
Golfing every ASCII character in 99
99 is a programming language I invented earlier this week for my challenge Write an interpreter for 99. (Invented but never needed to implement thanks to half a dozen of you. ;) ) The full language ...
- 89.2k
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Write a Kolmogorov Complexity Solver
The Kolmogorov complexity of a string S is the length of the shortest program P, written in some programming language L, whose output is exactly S.
(Yes, the real definition is more formal but this ...
- 89.2k
19
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Translate Prelude to Befunge
This is Weekly Challenge #2. Theme: Translation
Write a program or function that takes in source code for a program in Prelude and outputs code for an equivalent program in Befunge-93. For the ...
- 31.3k
13
votes
3
answers
816
views
Auto-meta-code-golf
You are sick of all of the codegolf challenges. Hence you decide to write a program that will automatically golf some Python code for you. There are 3 test cases:
...
- 14.4k
19
votes
2
answers
618
views
17
votes
9
answers
3k
views
Write a brainfuck translator
In any programming or scripting language x, write a program that takes a valid brainfuck sourcecode from stdin and output, to stdout, the sourcecode of a program, written in language x, that would ...
- 9,008
5
votes
3
answers
181
views
Count digits in a string, check if there its a fibonnaci number [duplicate]
There's a question with a comment with some code thats far too long.
For a site that has counting fetish, this code just seems so wrong.
Solve this meta-riddle, and explain it with a rhyme.
Winner is ...
user8777
29
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Anti-golfscript anti-golf: create a task where GolfScript or J is outgolfed by your (conventional) lang [closed]
You need to make three things:
Statement of a task, T.
Solution of the task in language not typically used for golfing, A.
Solution of the task in language typically used for golfing, B. Don't try to ...
- 2,697
33
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Meta regex golf
In the spirit of this xkcd
Write a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary pairs of lists. The program should at least attempt to make the regex short, a program that just outputs ...
- 749
7
votes
7
answers
484
views
Write a program to compose a quine of a specified length
Write a program, in a language of your choice, that will compose a quine program of a requested size. The generated program may be in the same or a different language, if desired.
Programs are scored ...
- 2,888
14
votes
10
answers
3k
views
Encode a program with the fewest distinct characters possible
The goal is to write a program that encodes an other program (input) with the fewest character possible.
Scoring
The score is equal to the different number of characters needed for the output.
Lower ...
- 7,468
35
votes
11
answers
15k
views
Brainf*** Golfer
One of easiest code written by a programming language is a program printing sequence of characters (ex. "Hello, world!"). However, some esoteric programming languages like Brainfuck, even this ...
- 3,462
7
votes
1
answer
587
views
Set the chessboard
Objective
Given an arbitrary chessboard as standard input (in which each piece is on a square), produce as standard output a list of moves needed to regularize, or set up, the chessboard. The moves ...
- 5,577
27
votes
7
answers
3k
views
Write a code golfer [closed]
Your job, should you choose to not refuse it, is to write a program that will "golf" a piece of given code in your language of choice.
Basic functionality:
Remove extraneous whitespace
Remove ...
- 1,965