rmu/puzzlenode — Issue #59: Provide more helpful feedback for an incorrect submission
Author: charlietanksley
Created: 2011-12-05 15:33:21+00:00
State: open

I'm working on puzzle 14. My submission fails. So my code must go wrong somewhere. But I have no clue how to tell where. My code handles the simple case perfectly. And the output for the complex case doesn't look obviously wrong. Of course, it is certainly wrong; that isn't the point. If I don't know the right answers I can't figure out where my code goes wrong.

Something like one of the following would be really nice:

* upon submitting a failing answer, be shown the first line (or group of lines via a diff tool) where your submission is wrong (and what the right one should look like).
* after some number of failed submissions (maybe 5?) you are given an option to download the solution.
* make the simple cases more representative of the complex ones--if you can get the simple ones right, you should be able to get the complex ones right; the differences should not be differences in kind.

I really like trying to solve these puzzles--I think they are great! But it is frustrating to simply hit a wall and have zero clue why my solutions are wrong.