Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Neil Cerutti Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: Python is awesome (Project Euler) Date: 2 Jan 2013 19:11:24 GMT Organization: Norwich University Lines: 22 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net u6mo2mL/9g1P6MvzYFpITQeTyIrylMgAJf2FRlRCrtgNWuemykph0CmDNuKUp+clbj Cancel-Lock: sha1:rHuDsV7486mw7jJgWufFKp6qE0g= User-Agent: slrn/0.9.9p1/mm/ao (Win32) Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:36006 On 2012-12-31, Roy Smith wrote: > There's a problem I just worked where you need to find the last > 10 digits of some million-digit prime. Python's long ints > don't help you there. What does help you is figuring out a way > to solve the problem that's not brute-force. I think that's > what Euler is all about. I agree. The most interesting part of participating is finding out how my solution could've been improved or just completely replaced with zero programming in some memorable cases. My algebra has gotten a major workout, and I've had to resurrect the mostly-dead neurons in my skull in charge of calculus. Participants sometimes come up with terrible failures that nevertheless find the solution (I'm no exception, though I think I learn my lesson in the discussion groups). It's a limitation of the way answers are checked. Working to make a solution that's complete and extensible yields the most educational benefits, I think. -- Neil Cerutti