pythagorean-triplet: Describe problem with variable sum N #1395
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
petertseng
commented
Nov 12, 2018
| @@ -17,6 +17,6 @@ For example, | |||
| 3**2 + 4**2 = 9 + 16 = 25 = 5**2. | |||
| ``` | |||
|
|
|||
| There exists exactly one Pythagorean triplet for which a + b + c = 1000. | |||
| Given an input integer N, find all Pythagorean triplets for which `a + b + c = N`. | |||
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Debatable: whether to explicitly note here that "none" is a possible answer. For example:
all Pythagorean triplets for which
a + b + c = N(possibly zero triplets)
I chose not to since…
- The additional clarification is not necessary for this to be a true statement. Zero triplets is a valid result for the word "all".
- Even if a student were to miss the possibility of zero triplets, it is highly unlikely to be a fatal error requiring a rewrite of the entire implementation upon discovery. The student has already been dealing with a variable number of triplets because the test case for zero triplets comes after the test cases for multiple triplets. Even in a language whose type system prevents the return type from having zero elements, in the only such language I know, making that change is a mere one-character change (change a + to a *)
There was a problem hiding this comment.
the only such language I know
Well, today I learned about http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.12.0.0/docs/Data-List-NonEmpty.html . But perhaps I can say that this is likely not the default thing that the student will reach for. So I will stand by the judgment of not explicitly saying "possibly zero"
fudanchii
added a commit
to fudanchii/rust
that referenced
this pull request
Nov 20, 2018
This is as described in exercism/problem-specifications#1395 The current README will really confuse non math-savvy students, as it asked to find `a*b*c`, while the tests actually check for the triplets. Change it to asks for the triplet explicitly. Give the answer for N = 1000 as it's also spoiled in the test file ;)
coriolinus
approved these changes
Nov 20, 2018
|
Given it's been a week, everyone else has missed the boat if they wanted to get on at all. |
petertseng
pushed a commit
to fudanchii/rust
that referenced
this pull request
Nov 20, 2018
This is as described in exercism/problem-specifications#1395 The current README will really confuse non math-savvy students, as it asked to find `a*b*c`, while the tests actually check for the triplets. Change it to asks for the triplet explicitly. Give the answer for N = 1000 as it's also spoiled in the test file ;)
petertseng
pushed a commit
to exercism/rust
that referenced
this pull request
Nov 20, 2018
…754) This is as described in exercism/problem-specifications#1395 The current README will really confuse non math-savvy students, as it asked to find `a*b*c`, while the tests actually check for the triplets. Change it to ask for the triplet explicitly. Give the answer for N = 1000 as it's also spoiled in the test file ;)
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
This form of the problem was ratified in the canonical data
#1332
Closes #1211