Sorry your browser is not supported!

it seems to me that the entire point of a "20-line" program has been defeated. most of the programs here are simply programs that have been condensed to 20 lines with colons, probably just with a simple text parsing program. some of the programs are, in reality, hundreds of lines long, up to 500 lines. it doesn't really seem like much of a challenge, or like the 20-line restriction has any purpose, if you can make very long and complex programs!

granted there are some things that are impossible with the 20-line limit - no comments, functions don't like being on the same line with other things, etc. but other than that, you are free to make the big, complex programs, as long as it can be compressed to 20 lines and doesn't require very much external media.

that last point sounds like it would make a much more interesting competition - make a program that doesn't require ANY external media, and the more media-laden it is, the better. and to make it fair, no converting files to DATA statements, then writing them out and loading them.

or, another idea would be to make it *truly* a line-limited competition, where colons are NOT PERMITTED and you are restricted to something a little less restrictive, like 50 or 100 lines. a 50-line game would be pretty impressive, as most of the stuff here is way more than 50 lines.

or how about graphical demos? there might be two categories - no external media, and anything goes. this would be a lot more interesting than a tiny, very simple game IMO. not to mention pretty colors draw potential customers pretty well.

what do you think?

Righto.......... As your so great..... and its sooooo easy........ make us a program. I think i speak for all the happy 20 liners in this forum when i say..... STOP COMPLAINING! Its simple harmless fun... which i enjoy.......... The people who created the 20 line challenge made it for all the people who use dark basic....... so if people arn't very good.... they can if they like convert a object into data statments and have it wiz around the screen....... ok....... it might not be a challenge for more experienced programmers...But its a giggle....If you don't like it....... Don't bother coming on this section of the forum!

The way I see it, your challenging yourself, I mean if you use 50 lines and no multi-lines, it can still be posted here without a moderator stepping in and getting all rule-booky. I think it's about limiting yourself and trying to achieve what your after within your own confines.

To tell the truth, I doubt a 20 liner is much help to newbies for learning, I mean it's so difficult to read most of the time - I'd rather see minimalist coding but nicely formatted and commented so that people can see just how simple some of those big, scary, confusing problems are. The very fact that the board is here goes to show that Rich is happy to leave it as an optimisers playground of sorts, it might not be a hugely popular forum - but that really depends on what people post.


Van-B

*Cough* Uhh... yeah, I'd never do that...

why do you want to dis on others having fun...

The only way I can see some impressive programs to fit under 20 lines is to go abit more lower in langauge terms.. this only means PRO users tho.. using C / DLLs ??? ASM stuff?? Then you could get abit more closer to the machine.. rather than talking to about 10 people down the interpreter line.

I've seen a fully blown FPS shooter which could almost equal Q2/Q3 graphically maybe in under 100kb.. like 70kb.. that would not use all the fancy functions.. but more use some kind of strict, quick.. stuff.. that's already there.. in the windows folders.. DirectX stuff? If your lucky to be a avid fan of these trancy music videos that rely on the music.. all very well presented.. at very small sizes!!!!