The Woburn Challenge is back for the 2016-17 year. The 1st online contest will take place Sun, Oct 16, 2016 from 2-5pm ET. This round will have over $500 in prizes with a $200 top prize!
If you've visited the contest list recently, you've probably noticed the big blue Virtual join buttons. However, when clicking them, you'll have realized that they do nothing!
Today, we are very happy to announce the completion of a virtual contest system in DMOJ — the buttons work! We hope you'll find virtual contests a useful addition.
What are virtual contests?
If you couldn't meet the deadline for participating in a contest, or would like the experience of writing a contest that ran a long time ago, virtual contests can help.
Put simply, they allow you to write a contest under the same conditions you would have, had you written it normally. You are given the same amount of time as regular contestants were, and may solve the same problems — naturally, this works best if you've not yet seen the problems. A minor note is that if the contest used pretests, you will receive full feedback instead.
With the 2016 contest season fast approaching, we hope you'll find virtual contests a good aid in practicing in the event that you cannot attend a live contest.
Join us on Slack (or IRC)!
On a marginally related note, we operate both a channel and #dmoj on esper.net — click on either to join.
We would love to hear your feedback, and they're a great place to meet and talk with other members of the community. In the very likely case that you run into an issue with virtual contests, please let us know in one of our channels.
As part of the new features and improvements we have been rolling out this summer comes an enhancement which deserves a bit of explanation: the new math engines which are now being used to render mathematical expressions.
What does this mean for me?
If you are using Firefox, you should notice much improved page load speeds, with the large MathJax JavaScript library and fallback SVGs no longer necessary. If you are using a different browser (e.g., Chrome), you will still benefit from less text shifting during page load, as the new SVG/PNG math renderer sizes images almost identically to MathJax.
We have put effort into making sure the math looks good on all browsers by default, but should you find something looks weird, read on (and please let us know).
Can I change the way math is displayed?
When editing your profile, you will see a new dropdown has been added, which allows you to configure the way math is displayed for you while logged in. There are 5 modes available:
Mode
Description
Leave as LaTeX
Perform no math rendering; output raw LaTeX commands.
SVG with PNG fallback
Display scalable vector math, falling back to PNG if your browser does not support SVG
MathML only
If you are using Firefox or another browser (not Chrome) that implements the MathML part of the HTML5 specification, math will be formatted as MathML commands with native browser support. To see if your browser renders MathML properly, you can visit this page to find out.
MathJax with SVG/PNG fallback
This has been the default used on the DMOJ until now, and uses the MathJax library to format math. If JavaScript is disabled, it falls back on SVG or PNG math, depending on browser support.
Detect best quality
This mode attempts to use caniuse.com data for a best-effort-guess of whether MathML is supported by your browser. It will use MathML if possible, and MathJax with SVG/PNG fallback when MathML is unsupported. This is now the default mode.
We hope you enjoyed the contest! If you have any suggestions or wish to contact the problemsetters, you may reach them via [email protected].
The fabled April 20 Contest, 2016 will be open starting April 20th!
From Wednesday, April 20th to Sunday, April 24th, challenge your friends and dastardly foes in the battle royale of a lifetime – the competition of mythical proportions known only as the April 20 Contest, brought to you by your pals at Thornhill.
Contestants may participate in any 3-hour window between 1 AM EST on the 20th and 11PM EST on the 24th. Anyone with a DMOJ account is welcome to participate, so register for an account if you haven't already. Please see the contest page for more details.
As the academic year comes to an end, we'll be holding our final DMOPC in the form of the Don Mills Programming Gala, which will take place at Don Mills C.I. on Wednesday, May 18th.
The contest will be split into three divisions of increasing difficulty, with prizes awarded to the top competitors. For interested competitors unable to attend the on-site event, we will also be hosting mirrors of the divisions, open for anyone to participate in.
Space is limited, so sign up soon! More details and registration options may be found here. You can find results and photos from last year's DMPG here.
