Regular expression problem

[Terry Reedy]

On 3/10/2013 1:42 PM, mukesh tiwari wrote:
> Hello all
> I am trying to solve this problem[1]
> [1] http://www.spoj.com/problems/MAIN12C/

As I remember, and as it still appears, this site severely penalizes 
Python solvers by using the same time limit for all languages. Thus, a 
'slow' python program may work correctly but the site will not let you 
know. A test that refuses to answer is no test at all. In the meanwhile, 
an algorithmically equivalent C program will be run and judged correct, 
so the programmer can try to speed up while not losing correctness.

By teaching 'speed before correctness", this site promotes bad 
programming habits and thinking (and the use of low-level but faster 
languages). I quote your later response: "Now I am getting wrong answer 
so at least program is faster then previous one". If the previous one 
was correct and the revision wrong, you should toss the revision and go 
back to the correct program.

I recommend that you work on problems where you have tests that you can 
actually run even before you code.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy