extra

Make Your Own Puzzles!

Here are some extra puzzles created by students young and old. Some are very easy, some very hard. See if you can do them. Then, create your own puzzles to submit and we'll include them as well. Here's how ...

1. Copy the sample.py or another than you like.
2. Change load(whatever) to create(uid,type,start_direction,startx,starty,title)
3. Change check() to wait() until you perfect your puzzle
4. Change wait() to save() when you are ready to save it. Then run again.
5. Change the create() to load(uid)
6. Change the save() to check()
7. Test run it again with your solution
8. Remove or change the lines of code you want players to fix or add
9. Run one last time to test what your players will see
10. Commit your changes to github and let us know about them to include

start_direction, startx, starty and title are optional. That's it. Here's an example:

"""Draw a Square

Draw a square in three lines of code.
"""

import sys
sys.path.append('..')
import codestudio
artist = codestudio.create('square-loop','artist',90,0,0,'Draw a Square')

for count in range(4):
    artist.move_forward(100)
    artist.turn_right(90)

artist.save()

This will automatically save it into the puzzles directory for you and make sure there isn't one already saved there with your unique id.

The parameters to create() are to help identify the puzzle solution and setup the starting settings:

1. A required string that will be the unique name and file name
2. A required type of code.org puzzle ('artist', 'maze', or 'farmer')
3. An optional starting direction to face (default 0, which is up)
4. An optional starting x coordinate offset (default 0)
5. An optional starting y coordinate offset (default 0)
6. An optional title (default 'codestudio')

All you need to do after that is test your challenge by changing create() and save() to load() and check():

"""Draw a Square

Draw a square in three lines of code.
"""

import sys
sys.path.append('..')
import codestudio
artist = codestudio.load('square-loop')

for count in range(4):
    artist.move_forward(100)
    artist.turn_right(90)

artist.check()

Now just remove the code you want coders to figure out and replace with some comments to give them hints, but they will already get the solution drawn for them to see. Make sure your code contains nothing left off, like loops without a body, because it will stop the solution from even appearing. Use pass if you need to for empty loops and such.

Place hint # ??? comments either on the line where they should begin or on column 50 of the same line if that line needs to be changed.

"""Draw a Square

Draw a square in three lines of code.
"""

import sys
sys.path.append('..')
import codestudio
artist = codestudio.load('square-loop')

for count in range(4):
    pass                                         # ???

artist.check()

Keep in mind that if you want to change your saved puzzle later you will have to edit the json file directly in the puzzles folder that you saved for it or remove it and create the puzzle again. artist.save() will never overwrite an existing saved solution to keep you from breaking others that are already working.

Gotchas for Developers

Don't forget sys.path.append('..')

Don't forget to add the following two lines so that folks can just solve these extras without moving anything or setting their PYTHONPATH, which they might not have learned how to do yet:

import sys
sys.path.append('..')
import codestudio

This also allows others to create their own collection of code puzzle challenges just by creating a directory structure or github repo like this:

./puzzles/sample.py
./sample.py
./README.md

You don't need __author__ and __credits__

People can see who contributed what by looking where they should, at the source files on GitHub. Adding these tags just makes more work to maintain them. Add a README.md file instead.

Make sure challenge fits on 400 pixel square canvas

This is small, sure, but it allows your challenges to match those from code.org and fit next to a coding window open on the right. It also allows for future codestudio Python development to add other widgets to the main window.