alt.hn

1/16/2025 at 9:59:38 PM

Solving the first 100 Project Euler problems using 100 languages

 https://github.com/jaredkrinke/100-languages

by todsacerdoti

1/17/2025 at 12:33:32 AM

Worth emphasising: Project Euler is a mathematical computation challenge, not a programming challenge like Advent of Code. The principal skill is algorithm design and as the problems progress you need to do more and more maths before you start coding.

by moomin

1/17/2025 at 3:11:32 AM

Math is to computer science as physics is to mechanical engineering, so I feel like there isn’t a massive distinction.

by LPisGood

1/17/2025 at 6:53:52 AM

They didn't say computer science, that said programming.

by xboxnolifes

1/17/2025 at 9:02:47 AM

Let's just say you need a vastly different level of maths to succeed at project euler compared to aoc.

by KeplerBoy

1/17/2025 at 3:27:59 AM

Advent of code is not a programming challage, it is a reading the spec challage.

by llm_trw

1/17/2025 at 11:46:06 AM

Not the last 3-5 days.

by drysine

1/17/2025 at 9:17:08 PM

Got a link? I tried it a long time ago and decided that I got enough misleading specs at work.

by llm_trw

1/17/2025 at 8:10:45 AM

I would argue that the later Advent of Code challenges (especially from the last 3 or 4 years) are very similar to (early to mid-tier) Project Euler challenges in that you cannot start before giving it a good hour or so of thinking

by dark-star

1/17/2025 at 2:13:48 AM

Do you ever need to start coding? I thought it was a requirement of the project that problems be solvable with pencil and paper.

by thaumasiotes

1/17/2025 at 2:24:44 AM

While some problems are actually solvable with just pencil and paper, this is not a requirement and the intention of the project is that problems will be solved with a combination of insight and coding.

From the Project Euler website:

"Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems."

by mudita

1/17/2025 at 2:16:49 AM

Well you probably _could_ whiteboard it but some of them are about extending a pattern to the millionth term. If you're really smart you might be able to find a closed form to get there quick, but you can also just program the basic rule and iterate

by wholinator2

1/17/2025 at 9:05:05 AM

Afaik most of them require you to find the trillionth term, rendering naïve approaches futile.

by KeplerBoy

1/17/2025 at 7:36:50 AM

For the harder Euler problems you usually need a combination of mathematical insight and good coding technique. Each problem typically provides sample values for smaller instances of the problem, which you can confirm with a straightforward solution approach. Then the actual problem will be to calculate f(10^500) or some absurd value that requires insight to make tractable. They are extremely good challenges overall.

by marsten

1/17/2025 at 10:41:37 PM

Pretty sure the first one should be done with a closed form formula:

lcm(3, 5) = 15. So there is a repeating cell of values every 15 which we can take advantage of:

  0, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12,

  + 15  ->               15, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27,

                         + 15  ->                    30, 33, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42
The last cell ending in 1000 is incomplete.

by kazinator

1/17/2025 at 2:18:21 AM

Why did I expect 10,000 files?

by gre

1/17/2025 at 3:20:28 AM

I'm totally with you, bro. Maybe the headline should have been "Solving 100 project Euler problems using a different programming language for each one" but that's probably way too verbose.

by acrophiliac

1/17/2025 at 5:46:03 AM

I expected 100x100 programs too without thinking how unreasonable that is. But sometimes it's hard to gauge what's unreasonable on HN.

"Solving the first 100 Project Euler problems in as many languages" does the trick and is only one character longer.

by karmakaze

1/17/2025 at 11:47:33 AM

>how unreasonable that is

It was a year or two ago.

by drysine

1/16/2025 at 10:09:19 PM

I wonder which ones the author liked the most and which they disliked the most. I didn't see any comments on that. If they're on HN, it'd be cool to find out.

by 7thaccount

1/16/2025 at 10:13:28 PM

It's hard to form a good opinion of a language if the knowledge of it is shallow, which I'm inclined to believe based on using 100 languages. More interesting is why the author decide to use a particular language for each problem.

by fuzzythinker

1/17/2025 at 2:19:41 AM

From one of blog posts [0]:

    Nim

    Nim is the language that impressed me the most in this batch. Everything I thought would be a problem (significant whitespace, choose-your-own-function syntax, intermediate C compliation step) didn't bother me at all. The small sample of the standard library I played with was a little quirky, but Nim seems like excellent bang for your buck.

    Notes:

    - Release binary was only 120 KB (linked against libc)!
    - Thought I'd dislike the syntax, but it was fine
    - Really easy to get started, many things "just worked" (e.g. grabbing a slice of an array)
    - Didn't have to specify too many types, but still ran fast
    - Fast compilation
    - Didn't like the "hints" it spews out during compilation, even for nim r (build and run)
    - Why did all take an anonymous function, but foldl took just an expression (with a and b seemingly picked out of thin air) -- is foldl a macro?
    - Nim might be a good language for hobby projects because it's easy, fast, and produces small binaries
    - I wonder what the debugging experience is like -- if it's decent, I might be writing a lot more Nim in the future!
This exactly my thoughts on Nim and why I use it almost exclusively for all my hobby projects.

0-https://log.schemescape.com/posts/programming-languages/100-...

by archargelod

1/17/2025 at 2:37:13 AM

Nim is a gem and I wish it was more mainstream than it is. Its older than both Rust and Go.

by giancarlostoro

1/16/2025 at 10:09:05 PM

I am interested in seeing Verilog used as one of the 100 languages.I have been wondering how it would be to use some sort of hardware description language to solve some of (all?)the problems. I worked thru the first half of "Nand to Tetris" [1] and thought I might try working some of the problems with that.

[1] https://www.nand2tetris.org/

by tocs3

1/16/2025 at 10:50:24 PM

From one of the blog posts:

> 8080 assembly (Altair 8800) > > First time I've heard of binary-coded decimals

I’m really surprised with that, that someone with such broad interests never heard of BCD. I mean, there’s is always something new to learn all the time, don’t get me wrong, nothing to criticize, just plain surprised. Wonder if that is just something older people came across?

by hmng

1/16/2025 at 11:14:59 PM

Old PL/I programmer here. I’m still trying to forget BCD’s from the 80’s!

by munchler

1/17/2025 at 12:02:20 PM

I learned about BCD when I was learning x86 assembly and have never came across them later. They are gone in x64.

by drysine

1/17/2025 at 6:27:59 AM

I did learn binary-coded decimals in college 5 years ago.

by adhamsalama

1/17/2025 at 12:04:12 AM

Wowow! this is fantastic, so many exciting and weird languages in there, even Mouse-83 is in the list!

It was really nice to read about the author's impression of each language.

Well done

by entaloneralie

1/16/2025 at 11:54:53 PM

Let's say an experienced engineer is starting Euler for the first time. What's the best way to approach it given that many of the problems require some prerequisite algorithmic knowledge to solve? Is there a good method for approaching Euler and LeetCode problems with new eyes aside from reading the solutions first, studying them and then solving it many times until committed to memory?

by joshuamcginnis

1/17/2025 at 12:14:58 AM

IMHO, Project Euler is a lot harder than LeetCode and requires a lot more math.

I'm not sure why you would want to solve it many times and committing those solutions to memory? I think you would be better off using some of the time to just read some text books?

For some of Project Euler https://www2.math.upenn.edu/~wilf/gfology2.pdf is a good math book to consult. The techniques in there will allow you to solve some of the problems with just pen and paper (and perhaps a pocket calculator, if you are too lazy to do the arithmetic by hand, but no need for a full blown programmable computer), especially the first few problems if memory serves right. Eg where they ask you to add up the first few billion even terms of the Fibonacci numbers and similar; you can just derive a simple closed formula and evaluate that by hand.

by eru

1/17/2025 at 12:15:24 AM

Project Euler is collection of puzzles based on math. The coding and designs skills are completely secondary to the math. The algorithms (except for computational number theory, computation geometry) are completely secondary. So it is knowledge of math that is barrier.

I keep learning math (and, sometimes, relatively new development in math) by solving problems. To start, I would recommend reading G.H. Hardy & E.M. Wright "An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers".

With LeetCode -- this is more traditional exercise in coding. I did not pay much attention to it. So, sorry, cannot provide any advice

by xzyyyz

1/17/2025 at 3:56:51 AM

Really it's fine to just start. At some point you may get stuck and want to learn more math, but when I did the first ~45 I certainly had not read generatingfunctionology or Hardy and Wright.

by abecedarius

1/16/2025 at 10:36:48 PM

I like how the author used four different variants of BASIC.

by omoikane

1/17/2025 at 12:31:32 AM

I'm curious if they are really, like, different. All Basic that I've seen in my life was a minuscule bit of VB and some really ancient programming book I've picked up when I was like 7 y.o. and didn't really have access to a computer.

by krick

1/17/2025 at 1:46:03 AM

I remember QBasic was notably different from Applesoft Basic in that QBasic did not require line numbers, and one of the demo programs (remline.bas) removed line numbers for you. Of the variants used by this author, the Commodore Basic variant is distinct in being the only one with line numbers. The others all look very similar.

by omoikane

1/17/2025 at 1:32:35 AM

Back in the day, over a decade or so, I wrote a few megabytes of VAX Basic. The language, and the code I wrote, at the end of that period looke nothing like it did at the beginning. So yes, it’s quite likely that the Basics are substantially different.

by MaysonL

1/17/2025 at 1:39:04 AM

AmigaBasic is quite different from Commodore Basic v2.0, and that’s within the same company.

by cgh

1/17/2025 at 1:06:39 AM

I solved the first 100 problems a long time ago before learning the best practices we learn as professional engineers.

It’s alien code now.

by callc

1/17/2025 at 10:45:14 AM

the julia solution was bad

by xiaodai

1/16/2025 at 10:55:55 PM

Impressive, but after reading the title I have to admit to being a little disappointed at not finding 10,000 solutions.

by prof-dr-ir

1/16/2025 at 11:32:38 PM

Yeah when I read that they "started this journey in March of 2024 and...completed it in January of 2025" I was like :o

by ahpeeyem

1/17/2025 at 6:52:35 AM

Happy to see Mouse83 get some air time :)

by lbj

1/16/2025 at 11:14:24 PM

That's cute but if you can't solve those problems in INTERCAL then can you even call yourself a programmer? (But seriously this is pretty cool.)

by nradov

1/17/2025 at 12:03:07 AM

I find it rather annoying and irrespectful for Project Euler. They specifically ask not to publish solutions.

Some other collection could be used for demonstration of skills and languages.

by xzyyyz

1/17/2025 at 12:23:14 AM

From Project Euler homepage:

> the rule about sharing solutions outside of Project Euler does not apply to the first one-hundred problems

by portercable

1/17/2025 at 2:30:00 AM

Apparently I do not keep up with times. I read the rules some 15 years ago last time. :-(

If you can provide a link, I would be really grateful!

by xzyyyz

1/17/2025 at 2:59:45 AM

As pointed out in a sibling comment, it appears that quote only shows up if you're logged in (apologies--I wasn't aware when I originally replied), but assuming you have an account and are logged in, it's on the homepage (https://projecteuler.net/), second paragraph under the following heading:

> I learned so much solving problem XXX, so is it okay to publish my solution elsewhere?

> It appears that you have answered your own question. There is nothing quite like that "Aha!" moment when you finally beat a problem which you have been working on for some time. It is often through the best of intentions in wishing to share our insights so that others can enjoy that moment too. Sadly, that will rarely be the case for your readers. Real learning is an active process and seeing how it is done is a long way from experiencing that epiphany of discovery. Please do not deny others what you have so richly valued yourself.

> However, the rule about sharing solutions outside of Project Euler does not apply to the first one-hundred problems, as long as any discussion clearly aims to instruct methods, not just provide answers, and does not directly threaten to undermine the enjoyment of solving later problems. Problems 1 to 100 provide a wealth of helpful introductory teaching material and if you are able to respect our requirements, then we give permission for those problems and their solutions to be discussed elsewhere.

You could say that providing code in an obscure language isn't really to "instruct methods", but I think it's within the spirit of the rules.

by portercable

1/17/2025 at 4:12:03 AM

thank you very much! pointer to the home page would suffice. your willingness to walk an extra mile (and copy relevant text) is much appreciated.

as i mentioned, i read home page years ago. in that time, third paragraph did not exist and 1-100 were considered a challenge. the language of request changes since that times.

by xzyyyz

1/17/2025 at 12:26:27 AM

fwiw this only shows up if you're logged in (at least for me), which confused me for a bit

by sigbottle

1/17/2025 at 12:32:03 AM

Oops, you are right!

by portercable

1/17/2025 at 12:19:16 AM

The first 100 problems are fair game to publish, I can't find it on their website anymore, but it's generally accepted that this is the case. You can check out the project euler discord for more authoritative information on this

by sigbottle

1/17/2025 at 12:13:17 AM

I know they ask, but it's really easy to find solutions online.

For what it's worth, when I was doing Project Euler myself, I never had a problem _not_ looking up solutions.

by eru

1/17/2025 at 12:22:13 AM

Just because a bus stop already has a broken window does not make it ok to smash in another.

by wesselbindt

1/17/2025 at 12:10:02 AM

Well, HN specifically asks for people to not comment shallow dismissals of others work, but here we are…

by thunkingdeep

1/17/2025 at 1:32:29 AM

I find it annoyingly unrealistic to demand that nobody publish solutions, especially interesting ones like this. Some people will always do it anyway, and once they do, any further resistance to such publications is pointless. If you want something secret, your ultimate mistake is publishing the problems in the first place. For a problem set as old as Project Euler, it's not reasonable to expect solutions to not be out there, and it is ultimately on the honor system whether a problem solver cheats or not.

by wakawaka28

1/17/2025 at 2:31:24 AM

It is called the honor system. But you're right: some people... And no, Project Euler does not demand. You can be sure, nobody is going to be sued. It asks politely to show respect to those who created the project, and to those who did not solve the problem.

Besides other things, there is a place to publish interesting solution: it is Project Euler forum to discuss solved problems.

by xzyyyz

1/17/2025 at 2:21:18 AM

Demand is a strong word. I do think it's entirely reasonable to ask, especially around the time the problems were first published. Things have changed on the internet

by wholinator2

1/17/2025 at 2:59:12 AM

at this point it is an old problem set, the solutions are everywhere and easy to find, at the very least for the first 100 problems. for those problems (at the very least) it is the responsibility of the participant to not look at solutions.

by semitones

1/17/2025 at 1:11:52 AM

It's ChatGPT answers anyway.

by dankwizard

1/17/2025 at 2:46:39 AM

Horrible, just horrible. Why would one release this publicly?

by utopcell

1/17/2025 at 3:12:53 AM

Why not? It seems like it’s worth sharing.

by LPisGood

1/17/2025 at 7:18:29 PM

There are a lot of people that have spent copious amounts of time solving these problems. Fewer than 1.4% of the registered Eulerians have solved more than 100 problems. Releasing the solutions for these trivializes their work, as now anyone can copy them (unless the assumption here is that solutions to all those 100 problems have been previously released on the net).

by utopcell

1/17/2025 at 10:22:16 PM

It doesn’t trivialize their work at all - they should still be proud of their accomplishments.

Does releasing the Putnam answers make winning a mathematics olympiad less meaningful, after all I can copy those answers easily.

Does learning how to implement distributed locking besmirch Lamport’s legacy?

Even still, the project itself approves of releasing solutions to the top 100 problems.

by LPisGood

1/17/2025 at 12:28:28 AM

No entry for proper static type languages namely C++, D, Go, Rust?

Dynamic type language is what you want but static type language is what you need [TM].

by teleforce

1/17/2025 at 6:24:28 AM

Ada, SML, F#, and more. Seems like you may not have looked at the list.

by Jtsummers

1/17/2025 at 1:14:06 PM

It's more probable they skimmed and couldn't recognize those. There's Idris, Hare, Odin, V, Roc, Haskell, Nim, Haxe, PureScript, Vala, Lobster, and arguably Common Lisp and Dylan. That's from a single read of the list.

Concluding there are no statically typed languages is only possible if you can't recognize them.

by klibertp

1/16/2025 at 10:30:35 PM

100 languages and yet not a single use of Rust. The omission feels like a statement.

by nekitamo

1/16/2025 at 10:35:30 PM

It's hard to make me hate something I've never engaged with and yet the Rust community has managed to do it with their overzealous love.

It's a language guys. It won't give you a BJ

by NotAnOtter

1/17/2025 at 2:29:30 PM

I went on LinkedIn this morning and I saw four posts from people talking about how good Rust was compared to other languages and then a bunch of comments from people with crab emojis in their names. Four. Its community is insanely cult like, I have never come across it before (maybe some Lisp-evangelicals, but they are individuals and not entire groups).

by TypingOutBugs

1/17/2025 at 12:53:34 PM

lol.

Rust people are insufferable.

by bloomingkales

1/16/2025 at 10:43:14 PM

To be more inclusive, consider using “it won’t go down on you” rather than “won’t give you a BJ”

by jtsiskin

1/16/2025 at 10:55:43 PM

I have always heard both terms used interchangeably ignoring gender. Maybe you need to broaden your own limited horizons instead of claiming others need to be more inclusive.

by dgfitz

1/16/2025 at 10:46:50 PM

It won't give anyone a BJ. Independent of if they could hypothetically receive one or not.

by NotAnOtter

1/17/2025 at 12:12:38 AM

Which sort of proves the point that there aren’t really any tolerable or normal people using Rust.

by thunkingdeep

1/17/2025 at 4:38:47 AM

not every comment needs to be inclusive

by semitones

1/17/2025 at 2:43:24 AM

Poe's Law gold right here!

by anonfordays

1/17/2025 at 4:16:00 PM

Yeah their comment struck me as a joke more than a real critique lmao. But I wasn't sure so I made my reply a joke.

by NotAnOtter

1/16/2025 at 10:35:08 PM

> using a different--and, ideally, new to me--language for each problem

Perhaps this is why?

by sramam

1/16/2025 at 10:45:08 PM

Ah I missed that part, thank you. The omission comment was tongue-in-cheek on my part.

by nekitamo

1/16/2025 at 10:35:09 PM

The author wanted to use languages that were new to them, if the author has enough familiarity with rust to have a vendetta then it probably isn't new to them.

by 420official

1/16/2025 at 10:37:55 PM

No C++. No C#. No Java. No JS. No Lua. No Brainfuck.

by elpocko

1/17/2025 at 1:42:44 AM

No Go. What makes this project impressive is how he avoided nearly all of the most popular mainstream languages in favour of eg COBOL and XSLT(!).

by cgh

1/16/2025 at 11:30:44 PM

No German too. But, still, very impressive. That's a talent.

by theGeatZhopa

1/16/2025 at 11:46:19 PM

no php!

by 867-5309

1/17/2025 at 12:23:58 AM

No Brainfuck is actually surprising. I missed that.

by krick