Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Meta

Rules for function submissions

+5
−0

What are our rules for function submission? What constitutes a function, and what makes a submission valid? Language agnostic answers are allowed.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

0 comment threads

2 answers

You are accessing this answer with a direct link, so it's being shown above all other answers regardless of its score. You can return to the normal view.

+1
−3

Function parameters should not be allowed to be used in place of a return value.

Reasons:

  • Terms like return value and function result are explicitly specified as a specific, formal language item in most languages.

    Therefore, interpreting a challenge asking for a return value as "return through parameter" is creating a local code golf dialect of the language (as was done on Stack Exchange).

    New users of the site should not need to study local, site-specific dialects of programming languages in order to contribute. It's bad enough to allow non-standard extensions.

  • Not all languages support pass by reference.

  • Some languages separate subroutines (do not return a value) from functions (returns a value).

  • Assuming that things like memory allocation are handled by the caller might give contributions an unfair advantage.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

2 comment threads

Same discussion in another Meta post (1 comment)
Mixed feeling about this restriction (4 comments)
+4
−1

General requirements

You need to have all the code that is necessary to create the function within your submission.

For most languages, this may include the syntax for defining the name and argument list of the function, and delimiters for the function body.

Some languages have first class functions or assignable function bodies, so they can just put the value in a submission and ask the user to assign it in order to use it more than once.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »