My first thought would be that we should avoid derivative-specific problems because it's going to reduce the number of people that are interested in participating in the challenge. And unless the derivative feature is part of the problem (like an A/D problem that requires an A/D to even have significance) then the same problem should be applicable (and be slightly more tricky) if it were a normal 8052.

For example, I certainly don't think dual DPTRs should be a part of any problem or solution because anything that can be done with dual DPTRs can be done without them, too, and then it's more applicable to everyone.



This is a very good question and I'm open to input on this.

I was thinking the questions would be assembly-based just due to the fact that if you're using a 'C' compiler, it does so much of the interesting work for you and you might as well be participating in a 'C' programming challenege at some random 'C' forum rather than something specific to the 8052. That's not to say there aren't good and bad solutions in 'C' to a given 8052 problem, but I would think that assembly-based problems would be more appropriate. Again, other thoughts on this are welcome.

My idea was to have one coding challenge open at any given time. Once a given time frame has passed (probably one week) and if sufficient solutions have been submitted (I was thinking of a minimum of three), then the system would automatically close the challenge, publish the next challenge, and the previous challenge would go into a voting phase for a certain amount of time (probably 3 or 4 days but with a minimum of some number of votes). Once the voting period is done, the system would announce the winner.

Question: Should every member be able to vote or only those that contributed a solution to the challenge?

Regards,
Craig Steiner