Project Euler

[Emil]

Project Euler:

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.

http://projecteuler.net/

 

[fullerene]

I looove that site. Sadly I don't have time anymore, but I did quite a few of them when I was bored last year. Much fun, if you like math and know a programming language.

 

[Emil]

I was introduced to it by a friend a few months ago, and I solved a few problems in JAVA. Then, my interest took a turn into something else. Recently, I took it again and solved a few more. It's fun to think about those problems and find out efficient algorithms to solve them.

 

[fullerene]

It's a good excuse to learn new programming languages in a fun way, too. I knew Java when I found the site, so I solved many of them in that, but some of the people from this forum coaxed me into learning python, because the syntax was much simpler and it's an inherently faster program. I don't think I would have done it if I had no use for it, but I did another 20 or so of them in Python, and now know the syntax and list features and things quite well.

 

[Latro]

Python is NOT faster than Java, except maybe for I/O, since Java is terrible at I/O.

 

[fullerene]

yeah, I take that back. I tested a general number-crunching program, the same in both java and python, and got back these times.

For python

real 2m50.478s
user 2m34.410s
sys 0m0.280s

for Java

real 0m7.767s
user 0m7.366s
sys 0m1.407s


I'm legitimately surprised.

 

[boradicus]

yeah, I take that back. I tested a general number-crunching program, the same in both java and python, and got back these times.

For python

real 2m50.478s
user 2m34.410s
sys 0m0.280s

for Java

real 0m7.767s
user 0m7.366s
sys 0m1.407s


I'm legitimately surprised.

Hey - what is the difference between the real, user, and sys times? I have never seen these benchmarks.. (then again I am not much of a Java guy...)

 

[Latro]

Hey - what is the difference between the real, user, and sys times? I have never seen these benchmarks.. (then again I am not much of a Java guy...)

That's just what linux outputs when you ask it how long a given operation takes. The first two figures are about the only relevant ones. I don't know the exact difference, but they're usually so close that it doesn't really matter.