RegEx Face Off
Games
regex puzzle game
SHOW HN2016
70points
38comments
#547of 2,264 in 2016
Top 25%of 2016 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
1 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 12 critical, out of 26 comments about the project. Thread score -0.39.
Idea: 1 for, 5 againstExecution: 0 for, 4 againstDesign: 0 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun, great idea for regex practice
From 4 comments
Really cool, enjoyed playing it for a while. Challenges you to practise your regex golf[1] skills. :) There seem to be some bugs with the timing mechanisms, probably some JS…
DvdGiessen on HNAgreed, awesome idea, needs a few bug fixes. Perhaps a description of the game mechanics. Some patterns match inaccurately, and I am also experiencing running out of time with…
linusthebear on HNGame's fun but there's a problem when sometimes the time runs out prematurely. If it didn't do this I'd say 5 stars well done.
readme on HNNice, thanks for being responsive! I agree it's a great concept, sorry if the critique came across as harsh.
netsec_burn on HN
Objections
Rounds time out prematurely (5 second timeouts)
From 6 comments
Sorry, this will be a negative review. This is easily the most frustrating game I've ever played. I can't test parenthesis because it tells me my time 'ran out' with 45 seconds…
netsec_burn on HNI got the 5 second timeouts too. Not sure about the viability of the whole game concept. I kinda like the other idea in this thread of giving both players a fixed amount of time,…
ufmace on HNYeah, the "time ran out" prematurely bug killed it for me.
ElijahLynn on HNI know people have said this already, but just to update it, the site is still giving 5 second timeouts. Also when you are playing as anonymous against anonymous, when it says:…
natch on HNGame's fun but there's a problem when sometimes the time runs out prematurely. If it didn't do this I'd say 5 stars well done.
readme on HNThere's definitely a bug in the timing. I feel like it's related to the previous round. Whenever I finished a round early, the next round timed out early. Also, it should be…
umbrai_nation on HN
Shortest-regex wins; alternation of words (foo|bar) solves rounds trivially
From 3 comments
Spoiler warning: super-strategy below. Not a bad idea but since there's no penalty for long strings I can win pretty much instantly by treating it as a typing test and typing a…
logicallee on HNNice idea! Unfortunately, here's how to solve pretty much any game in <3sec: firstword|secondword|thirdword|... you can usually stop typing every word after ~3 chars (no other…
nothrabannosir on HNThere's definitely a bug in the timing. I feel like it's related to the previous round. Whenever I finished a round early, the next round timed out early. Also, it should be…
umbrai_nation on HN
Challenges are unrealistic and not practical regex use
From 3 comments
Is the game about regexes or finding letter patterns in words? The rounds I played aren't realistic or particularly interesting uses of regexes.
marcoperaza on HNI'm a bit confused - I'm not sure I understand the practicality of this. I do like challenging regexps, but I did not find them here. I thought the point of code games is to…
drej on HNCool concept, but I think it'd be infinitely better if the challenges were more realistic/interesting. E.g. matching dates in a particular format, but not another similar format.
marcoperaza on HN
Match/tick UI and rules are confusing
From 2 comments
I gave up after 2-3 games as well. Time kept running out in three seconds. The semantics are also murky, what do I need to match? The regex doesn't assume ^$, but then do I need…
StavrosK on HNIt looks like you just need to match anything in the line, not the whole line. Basically, re.search(your_regex, line) should not return None. The ticks are just bad UX, because…
StavrosK on HN
XSS vulnerabilities via player name
From 2 comments
Sorry, this will be a negative review. This is easily the most frustrating game I've ever played. I can't test parenthesis because it tells me my time 'ran out' with 45 seconds…
netsec_burn on HNStill there actually, but in a different place. There's another XSS, if you just paste this in your solution: ``` |<audio style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" controls…
netsec_burn on HN
Requests
Score by shortest regex with fixed time limit
From 3 comments
I got the 5 second timeouts too. Not sure about the viability of the whole game concept. I kinda like the other idea in this thread of giving both players a fixed amount of time,…
ufmace on HNMy strategy was ^[].*[^]$ where you first fill in all the first letters of the match words and then all the last characters of the skip group. Works fairly well. I'm not sure if…
pepijndevos on HNThere's definitely a bug in the timing. I feel like it's related to the previous round. Whenever I finished a round early, the next round timed out early. Also, it should be…
umbrai_nation on HN
Document game rules and regex flavour
From 2 comments
Some explanation of what to do and what flavor of "regex" syntax is accepted would be good. I'm guessing it's a javascript syntax, but I don't really remember how different it is…
zzzcpan on HNAgreed, awesome idea, needs a few bug fixes. Perhaps a description of the game mechanics. Some patterns match inaccurately, and I am also experiencing running out of time with…
linusthebear on HN
More realistic data such as date formats
From 2 comments
Cool concept, but I think it'd be infinitely better if the challenges were more realistic/interesting. E.g. matching dates in a particular format, but not another similar format.
marcoperaza on HNIs the game about regexes or finding letter patterns in words? The rounds I played aren't realistic or particularly interesting uses of regexes.
marcoperaza on HN
Show round results longer with a continue button
From 2 comments
I know people have said this already, but just to update it, the site is still giving 5 second timeouts. Also when you are playing as anonymous against anonymous, when it says:…
natch on HNthe app works to fast and I as a user get confused. It should show who won, with what match at the end of the round for a longer period of time
thealistra on HN
User-suggested pattern sets
From 1 comment
pattern idea: provide a UI for users to suggest sets of data to match.
natch on HN
Questions
Is the flavour JavaScript or PCRE, and does it support lookarounds?
From 1 comment
Some explanation of what to do and what flavor of "regex" syntax is accepted would be good. I'm guessing it's a javascript syntax, but I don't really remember how different it is…
zzzcpan on HN
What exactly must a regex match or exclude?
From 1 comment
I gave up after 2-3 games as well. Time kept running out in three seconds. The semantics are also murky, what do I need to match? The regex doesn't assume ^$, but then do I need…
StavrosK on HN
Alternatives named
Regex Golf (xkcd-inspired regex golf challenges)
From 1 comment
Really cool, enjoyed playing it for a while. Challenges you to practise your regex golf[1] skills. :) There seem to be some bugs with the timing mechanisms, probably some JS…
DvdGiessen on HN