[Haskell-cafe] haskellwiki and Project Euler

Daniel Fischer daniel.is.fischer at web.de
Sun Feb 24 07:28:53 EST 2008


Am Sonntag, 24. Februar 2008 11:37 schrieb Cale Gibbard:
> Hello,
>
> It seems that I'm getting sucked into this argument solely due to my
> unwillingness to allow people to damage useful content that has been
> added to the Haskell wiki.

I'm sorry, I was angry that someone posted my code on that page and 
over-reacted. I apologize.

>
> This started a couple of weeks ago when a user by the name Marypoppins
> decided to arbitrarily remove all the Euler Problems solutions from
> the wiki. I treated this as vandalism and immediately reverted all the
> changes.
>
> I'd like to state up front that I otherwise have no personal stake in
> this, since the solutions pages are not ones that I've made
> significant contributions to, nor have I even spent a significant
> amount of time working on Project Euler problems. (They have not
> enough universal quantifiers in them for my tastes.)
>
> I do however, think it's important to not allow valid contributions to
> the wiki to be damaged by people without good reason.

Agreed, and the page with the code may indeed be considered a valid 
contribution. However, it certainly would be more valuable if it wasn't bare 
code, but also included explanations of the mathematical or programmatical 
ideas behind it.

The page with just the answers I cannot but find worthless.


> Why is this even the least bit bad? If you publish a bunch of
> problems, expect people to publish a bunch of solutions to them. They
> will do this regardless of what you demand, since there's educational
> value to others in doing so.

The educational value would be more visible if the code was explained, but 
okay.

> If Project Euler is instead, not a contest, as people on the Talk
> pages on the wiki have claimed, then nobody should have any problem
> with publishing solutions, as the only person one could possibly cheat
> by looking up the solution is oneself. However, if one had already
> given up on solving said problem, then there would likely be
> significant educational value in reading a solution to it.
>
> >  On top of that, the code for many problems isn't even Haskell, but C,
> > WTF!
>
> This indeed is a problem, as it is the Haskell wiki after all.
> However, I feel that it's more valuable to keep such solutions until
> such time as their Haskell counterparts are made available.

I disagree, more valuable would be an explanation of the ideas behind it, and 
perhaps contrasting a C (python,...) programme with a Haskell one to 
highlight the different approaches.

>
> >  Other code was submitted without consent of the author, copied from the
> > PE fora, which are restricted access and so, even if perhaps not legally,
> > but in spirit, do not fall under the legitimate resources for
> > haskellwiki: "You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or
> > copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. DO NOT SUBMIT
> > COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!"
>
> This is a legitimate concern. If the copyright of the original authors
> can be proved, said solutions should indeed be removed.

PE has a share-alike license, the very least to be demanded if someone posts 
other's code is proper attribution. 

Daniel



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